The Wolf Rings the Bells of a Convent from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox
1650–75
Medium
Engraving; fifth state of six
Dimensions
Plate: 3 3/4 × 4 1/2 in. (9.5 × 11.4 cm) Sheet: 4 in. × 4 3/4 in. (10.2 × 12.1 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(19)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the whimsical world of medieval fables, Allart van Everdingen's engraving *The Wolf Rings the of a Convent* captures a chaotic scene from Hendrick van Alar's *Renard The*, a 15th-century Dutch adaptation the popular *Reynard the Fox* cycle. Created between 1650 and 1675 during the Dutch Golden Age, this fifth state of six depicts anthropomorphic animals—here, a sly wolf disrupting a convent's bells amid monks and men—highlighting the tale's satirical take on human folly, hypocrisy, and power struggles. These stories, rooted in 12th-century European beast epics, used cunning foxes, greedy wo...
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...