1138 - Johann Elias Ridinger, "Tückische Schmeichelei", fable 12 of the "Lehrreiche Fabeln", monkey and cat

Johann Elias Ridinger, "Tückische Schmeichelei", fable 12 of the "Lehrreiche Fabeln", monkey and cat (1698 Ulm – 1767 Augsburg), etching on paper, inscribed in the plate lower right "J El Ridinger inv fec et excud.", below the image "FABUL. XII" and titled in three languages, in German "Tückische Schmeicheley wird endlich entdeckt und zu schanden.", below in Latin and French, sheet from the series "Lehrreiche Fabeln aus dem Reiche der Thiere", Augsburg 1744. Beneath a canopy with cord and tassel a monkey in a feathered cap on a couch covered with a fringed cloth, at left on a small carved table a birdcage with open door, on it a cat with outstretched forepaws, a dog each on a chair at left and under the cloth in front. Condition commensurate with age, foxed, creased, marginal defects. Image 29.5x23.5 cm (HxW), passe-partout, overall 46x37 cm (HxW). Johann Elias Ridinger (1698 to 1767) trained in Ulm under the painter Christoph Resch and continued his training in Augsburg with the battle painter G. Ph. Rugendas; from 1759 he was director of the Augsburg Academy. In his own art dealership he published more than 1,600 prints, including animal series and hunting series, which were reprinted into the 19th century and also transferred to porcelain and wall decorations. The fable series with the title addition "zur Verbesserung der Sitten" comprises 20 sheets. It stands in the tradition of the animal fable and served moral instruction in the spirit of the Enlightenment. In the Ridinger catalogue raisonné by Thienemann (1856), the fable sheets are listed under numbers 765 to 784.