Da Marcus Gheeraerts il Vecchio, edizione Dordrecht, Jean Berewout (XVII) - La vecchia cicogna

By Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder – The Old Stork – 1618

Antique engraving from Estienne Perret’s XXV Fables des animaux, in the Dordrecht edition, Jean Berewout, 1618

The composition depicts a stork in flight with a snake in its beak, heading toward its nest with its young, situated on the roof of a house. Below is a lively village landscape, with houses with steeply pitched roofs, a tower, trees, and figures along a winding road. In the foreground are two travelers with walking sticks and baskets on their backs.

The subject illustrates the fable De la vieille Cigogne: the stork’s devotion to its young becomes a moral example of family care and the support owed to parents in old age.

Condition

Toned paper, with stains and light spotting. Folds and rippling visible