Fabel van de wolf en het standbeeld

In a detailed interior, a wolf stands over a discarded mask or sculpted head, resting its paw on the forehead as if inspecting it. The background features a workbench holding a finished sculpture of a reclining woman with children, and a standing statue of a bearded man in robes. Scattered chisels, a mallet, and stone fragments indicate the active space of a stone-carver.

Illustrating Aesop's fable of 'The Wolf and the Mask,' this image serves as a moral emblem on the distinction between outward appearance and inner substance. In the Neoplatonic and Hermetic circles of Rudolf II’s Prague where Sadeler worked, this theme resonated with the philosophical search for the animating spirit or 'mens' behind material forms.