Reynard the Fox

This is the 7th lantern slide from a series of 36 glass slides (8.5 x 8.5 cm) featuring black-and-white illustrations accompanying the story of Reynard the Fox, which has a rich European history. The oldest Middle Dutch version of this satirical epic featuring anthropomorphic animals is 'Van den vos Reynaerde', written in the second half of the 13th century by 'Willem die Madocke maecte'. The engravings in this series were originally created by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874) for a German-language version of the epic in 1857, namely Goethe's 'Reineke Fuchs', and contain many additional satirical elements.

On the front side, there is a rectangular label with the pencil notation 'DCA 7', a second rectangular label printed with 'Lichtbeelden Vereeniging, Amsterdam.', and a round label with the handwritten number '7'. The lantern slide consists of a double glass plate held together by black paper adhesive tape. Around 1934, it was part of the loanable collection of the Stedelijk Schoolmuseum Antwerp.

In this scene, Reynard has shown Bruin the bear how to get honey. This is a trap. Bruin gets stuck with his front paws in the tree trunk (a stump that seems to laugh at him), and Reynard points to the group of people who are somewhat hesitantly approaching to attack the bear with whatever they can find: a club, a pitchfork, an axe, and the man with the bootjack under his belt has a heavy stone in his hand. In the lower right corner are the letters 'VK' (Von Kaulbach).