Img. ID: 224999
Fol. 17: A fox is being attacked by a bear which grips its neck with its mouth and forelegs. This scene does not follow the caption and text which describes the decapitation of the fox with a sword. The caption above reads: “Image of the bear beheading the fox ‘for its transgression’” (I Chr. 10:13 and Ezek. 18:24;
צורת הדוב כורת ראש השועל, במעלו אשר מעל; Loewe 2004, I:141).
For depictions of the same subject in the other 15th-century manuscripts of Meshal ha-Kadmoni see Appendix 1: line 17. Gronemann shows that in contrast to the text and other copies of Meshal ha-Kadmoni our artist has chosen to depict the fight between the bear and the fox as a natural combat between animals rather than the anthropomorphic act of decapitation suggested by the text (Gronemann 2006, I: 235-236).
For animals killing their prey by biting their neck see figs. 1-2:
Fig. 1: Model Book, Florence, c.1430, Paris, Louvre, Rothschild Coll. inv. 760 DR, fol. 7 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 224) |
Fig. 2: Kalila wa Dimna, Mamluk, 14th century, Oxford, Bodl. Lib. Arab. 3467, fol. 4 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 225) |
For the Rothschild Miscellany, see IJA 1982/1/105.