Zoo kan het fabeldicht u leeren en vermaken, / Door een verscheidenheid van zonderlinge zaken. / Geef dan, leergrage jeugd! ook fabelleer gehoor, / En dring zoo meer en meer tot waar- en braafheid door 1822 - 1849

Editor: So, here we have an etching from between 1822 and 1849, “Zoo kan het fabeldicht u leeren en vermaken…” by Jan de Lange II, currently residing at the Rijksmuseum. It gives off this nostalgic, almost childlike wonder. What's your initial reaction? Curator: Childlike, yes, I love that description! It’s like stepping into a well-loved storybook from childhood, each panel whispering its own little fable. It’s visually quaint, but hints at some pretty harsh moral lessons. Does that juxtaposition strike you as interesting? Editor: Absolutely. It’s cheerful, yet a bit dark, with those old cautionary tales represented in print. What do you make of its layout and use of text? Curator: Well, it definitely leans into the didactic, the instructive. See how the images are almost secondary to the text? Back then, print like this was a key method for educating children… with a hefty dose of "behave, or else!" baked in. It seems almost a precursor to comics, right? Imagine how captivating it must have been. What tale grabs you the most? Editor: Perhaps the wolf and the lamb; it looks a bit like a comment on unfair power dynamics. I find that relevant to my own world, too. Curator: Indeed, and those themes, they rumble through the ages, don’t they? I suppose we seek meaning in stories to explain our own circumstances. Each scene, simple as it looks, becomes a pocket universe for reflection. That's what grabs me most; finding the mirror within the fable. Editor: So, what was intended as simple morality lessons also gives us some deeper reflections if we read a little more carefully, and maybe even find ourselves in them. That’s something to think about.