The Wolf Accuses Renard of Eating the Fish that He Stole from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox 1650 - 1675

Curator: I’m drawn to the atmosphere here, that strange blend of accusing eyes and sylvan quietude. Allart van Everdingen completed this ink and etching print sometime between 1650 and 1675. The piece is titled “The Wolf Accuses Renard of Eating the Fish that He Stole from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox.” It feels incredibly literary to me, as if a chapter in a storybook has come to life. What does it bring to mind for you? Editor: The sheer labour involved in creating these intricate lines through etching! I imagine van Everdingen bent over a copper plate for days, meticulously scratching away at the surface. Note the relatively accessible price of this imagery too; printed items such as this one played a key role in spreading the folklore and visual styles amongst various markets and social classes. Curator: That connection between the physical act of making and the diffusion of stories is fascinating! And it really shows in the level of detail; the fur on the animals, the craggy trees, that farmer or merchant on the road in the distance. Do you feel any sense of the story through those material details? Editor: Certainly. The texture becomes the tale. Notice how Everdingen depicts the wolf with such coarse lines compared to the smoother execution on the human figure in the back. One is enmeshed in wildness; the other trying to haul labor onwards through civilization. Consider what materials each figure consumes to be brought into form by the artisan’s hand. Curator: And isn't that so very telling about perspective? We're not *inside* Renard's head, seeing his motivations. Instead, we're presented with the wolf's point of view, the accuser's. It speaks to the subjectivity of truth, how stories shift depending on who’s telling them. Editor: The consumption of perspective… Precisely. Van Everdingen chose reproducible methods so others may continue these perspectives across copies and across tellings. How many more social narratives get hauled along and reinterpreted within such circulation? How many material goods moved along the pathways of Renard’s tale here? Curator: Exactly! I will remember this piece next time I wonder whether artworks, books, songs truly manage to move culture around and create impact and change through time. Thank you. Editor: Indeed. Van Everdingen helps illuminate how art also implicates and carries materials.