The Cat, Caught in a Snare, is Mistreated by the People from the House from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox 1650 - 1675

Curator: This etching by Allart van Everdingen, created between 1650 and 1675, is titled "The Cat, Caught in a Snare, is Mistreated by the People from the House from Hendrick van Alcmar's Renard The Fox." It is currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: What strikes me immediately is the implied violence, the stark contrast between the enraged figures and the… well, the cat caught in a snare. It’s unsettlingly direct. Curator: The print depicts a scene from the medieval fable, "Reynard the Fox," a popular narrative critiquing social and political structures through animal allegory. The mistreatment of the cat is part of a larger commentary on justice and power dynamics. Editor: I see that in the composition—how the figures crowd and almost burst from the frame on the left, the receding space on the right is more composed, almost frozen. This dramatic imbalance definitely adds to the tension. The lack of clear lines further exacerbates this; is that typical of Everdingen’s etchings? Curator: Everdingen was known for his landscape paintings, and in his prints he often uses dense lines to mimic the textural qualities he achieved with paint. Here the frenzied activity contrasts with the clean forms in the background; for example the precisely placed jars and barrel at the top and bottom. Editor: How fascinating. The artist's decision to render a specific literary scene using the relatively "unstable" technique of etching is suggestive of a deeper reading here. Etching, especially when tonally rich, is capable of great textural variation and subtle atmospheric gradation. Its capacity to invoke this type of visual energy certainly lends itself to conveying such charged, violent, subject matter. Curator: Precisely! Van Everdingen harnesses the materiality of etching to draw the viewer in; making one complicit as witness. In terms of social history, the story and its visual depictions also functioned as moralistic lessons, highlighting the dangers of unchecked power. Editor: So it seems this tiny image packs a potent punch of technical skill, compositional balance and social commentary! I’ll certainly be pondering this a little longer. Curator: Agreed. Van Everdingen provides an entry into larger issues of society, then and now, showing that injustice takes place across both time and context.