Fabel van de papegaai en de aap

An engraving depicting a bearded monkey seated in the foreground, looking directly at the viewer while handling its own long tail. Above, a parrot is perched on a branch within a dense canopy of leaves. In the background, a river flows past crumbling stone ruins and a distant city, with small figures visible along the shore.

Engraved by Rudolf II’s court artist, this work belongs to a series of animal fables that served as moral allegories within the Mannerist culture of the Prague court. The monkey frequently symbolized 'Ars simia Naturae' (Art as the ape of Nature), reflecting a Neoplatonic concern with the hierarchy of imitation and the relationship between natural forms and human artifice.