Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Cranes Catching Snakes

Preview image of work. engraving on paper, Cranes Catching Snakes 8601

1976.39

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Cranes Catching Snakes

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Artist

Johannes van der Stradanus (Jan van der Straet, the younger) (Bruges, Belgium, 1523 - 1605, Florence, Italy)

Title

Cranes Catching Snakes

Creation Date

n.d.

Century

16th-17th century

Dimensions

8 1/16 in. x 10 11/16 in. (20.4 cm. x 27.2 cm.)

Object Type

Creation Place

Europe, Flanders, Flanders

Medium and Support

engraving on paper

Credit Line

Gift of David P. Becker, Class of 1970

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1976.39

Two hunters shielded by a tree witness a fierce battle of storks against snakes. Royal menageries in 16th century Europe featured bloody spectacles of interspecies fights to the death between exotic beasts, such as tigers and elephants. The bird and snake combat recorded in 1st c. Roman Pliny's Natural History, book 10, is described as taking place in Thessaly, Greece, where laws protected storks because of their snake-slaying potency. The Latin verse on the print locates the scene in Apulia, the “heel” of the boot of Italy: “Vast Appulia nourishes the scaly snakes. The crane and the stork attack their offspring. Here they wage a bitter war with beak and bite….” In modern day Puglia, the common leopard rat snake bears spots like those seen in the print. In ancient times storks were seen as models of parental devotion, and in northern Europe a stork nesting on one’s chimney (seen on the right) is sign of good luck.

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