Karel van MALLERY: The Son on the Donkey, the Father on Foot
Price: € 500
Second plate of a series of six plates illustrating Aesop's fable of the father, his son and the ass.
Engraving, 194 x 248 mm. Hollstein 125, impression with Philipp Galle’s address.
Very fine impression printed on laid watermarked paper (watermark: glove). Small margins (sheet: 220 x 265 mm). Two tiny foxmarks. In very good condition.
The plates were engraved by Karel van Mallery after Ambrosius Francken I (1544 - 1618).
Following the title plate, The Son on the Donkey, the Father on Foot is the first of five plates illustrating Aesop's fable. It shows a father and son on their way to market, criticised by passers-by because it is the young, strong son who is being carried by the donkey, while his father is walking. In the second illustration, on the contrary, it is the father who is riding the donkey, but they are criticised nonetheless: the father does not care about his son and lets him exhaust himself! Passers-by are no happier with the following illustrations: whether they both ride the donkey or walk alongside it, passers-by are never happy. Needless to say, the last solution - father and son carry the donkey on their backs - doesn't convince them either!
The title-plate already announces the moral of the story: you can't please everyone.