"Examining the illustrations of the European fox stories throughout the centuries from an art historian's point of view, raises some additional questions concerning book production and text reception. Because the artists, in illuminating a story, usually refer to a `visual' background rather than to a literal one, a comparison between the illustrations of different versions of beast epics such as Renart le Nouvel, Le Roman de Renart and Reinaerts Historie, is quite an instructive one. Furthermore, if we compare 15th-century woodcut cycles with corresponding iconographic types in contemporary art, we can see that a number of illustrations serve as parodies of their model. As a result, this inseparable `co-operation' of text and image may help us suggest a dating for a given text or book." Zumbult

Language: English