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Original fileFabel van de buffel en de boer
About This Work
A man exerts physical effort to pull a massive, shaggy water buffalo by a lead attached to its nose. The scene is set in a dense woodland with a mix of bare branches and leafy trees, rendered with fine cross-hatching. The man carries a sword or large knife at his side, suggesting a journey through a wild or untamed landscape.
Produced while Sadeler was court engraver to Rudolf II in Prague, this work belongs to a series of fables that used animal behavior to illustrate moral and philosophical truths. In the Rudolfine context, such images were part of a broader 'Theater of Nature' that sought to categorize the world and derive human wisdom from the study of the natural and animal realms.
Connected Texts
Rudolf II
Sadeler was the primary engraver for the Emperor, whose court was the center of late Renaissance natural philosophy and Hermeticism.
De warachtige fabulen der dieren
This print is based on the 16th-century tradition of animal fables used for moral instruction, often associated with Marcus Gheeraerts.
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 96 mm x width 112 mm
emblem
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.