Fabel van de wolf, de vos en de herder

A muscular shepherd stands in the center, his back to the viewer, swinging a large wooden club over his head to strike a wolf cornered against a rocky outcrop. A fox looks down on the scene from a higher ledge, while in the background, hunting dogs chase a second fox toward a group of country cottages. The landscape is rendered with fine cross-hatching and includes detailed foliage and distant hills.

Aegidius Sadeler was the court engraver to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, a major center for late Renaissance alchemy and natural philosophy. This print, part of a series of animal fables, reflects the Rudolfine interest in the 'theater of nature' and the use of animal behavior as a moral and philosophical mirror for human conduct.