Renard is Accused by the Animals Before the Lion from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox
1650–75
Medium
Engraving; third state of four
Dimensions
Plate: 3 9/16 × 4 5/8 in. (9.1 × 11.8 cm) Sheet: 3 13/16 × 4 15/16 in. (9.7 × 12.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.650.8(23)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This engraving by Allart van Everdingen illustrates a pivotal scene from the medieval beast fable *Reynard the Fox*, in which the clever fox stands accused by his fellow animals before the lion king. Created between 1650 and 1675 as part of a series after Hendrick van Alcmar’s telling, the print captures the moral tension between wit and authority that has delighted European audiences for centuries. Van Everdingen, a Dutch Golden Age artist celebrated for his narrative and landscape prints, brings the story to life through a lively gathering of creatures. As an engraving in its third state of...
About the Artist
Allart van Everdingen · 1621–1675
Allaert van Everdingen (1621-1675) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker who introduced Scandinavian landscape painting to the Netherlands. Born in Alkmaar and baptized on June 18, 1621, he pioneered a distinctive genre of Nordic mountain scenery that profoundly influenced Dutch landscape painting and later inspired the Romantic movement. Van Everdingen holds a unique place in art history...