Swinegel4

What you are looking at

A crowded domestic interior in which anthropomorphic animals—a swineherd, a hare, and various other creatures—enact a tumultuous scene around a central figure. The composition is dense and chaotic, with multiple figures gesturing animatedly. A sow or pig in the center wears clothing and appears to be the focus of the action, surrounded by other animals in human dress. To the left, a figure hangs from what appears to be cloth or a rope; above, a monkey clings to timber supports. The setting is a modest cottage interior with a window visible in the background showing vine leaves or plants, and domestic objects—a pot, a jug—scattered on the floor. The engraving employs fine hatching and cross-hatching to create depth and shadow, typical of 16th-century German printmaking.

The dancing

The central sow stands on hind legs, dressed in human garments, with arms raised in an animated gesture of distress or exertion. Surrounding figures—also in human clothing—adopt a variety of postures: some reach toward the sow, others gesture with hands aloft, and at least one figure hangs suspended. The limbs are elongated and exaggerated in the manner of satirical Northern Renaissance print culture. The arrangement suggests violent or agitated movement rather than organized choreography, with overlapping bodies and limbs creating visual chaos.

The dance depicted

This is not a depiction of formal dance but rather a satirical or moralizing narrative scene, likely illustrating a fable or folk tale—the accompanying German text references a race between a hedgehog (Swinegel) and a hare. The animals' animated poses and tumultuous arrangement evoke boisterous rural festivity, carnival chaos, or folk comedy rather than any structured dance form. The work belongs to the tradition of Northern Renaissance comic and didactic prints in which animal characters enact human follies and antics. No recognizable dance style or hold is present; instead, the image trades in gestural exaggeration and physical comedy.

How it was made

This is an engraving on paper, identified from the fine parallel and cross-hatching lines that model form and shadow throughout the composition. The technique allowed for precise linear detail and wide circulation through printing. The style and execution are consistent with mid-16th-century German printmaking, likely from a series or broadsheet. The use of engraving suggests a work intended for a relatively literate, urban audience capable of appreciating the narrative and satirical content accompanying the image.

About this work

This engraving depicts a narrative scene from a fable or folk tale involving anthropomorphic animals in a moment of chaos or festive disorder. The sow, hare, and other creatures are dressed as humans and arranged in a composition that emphasizes animated, exaggerated gesture rather than dance in any formal sense. The work is an artifact of Northern Renaissance satirical print culture, where animal characters and rural settings served as vehicles for moral instruction, social commentary, and entertainment. It survives as evidence of how pre-modern visual culture deployed the human body in comic and didactic contexts, often drawing on folk narrative traditions that remain difficult to fully reconstruct.

How to look at it

Attend to the overlapping, interlocking limbs and the variety of arm gestures—none form a coherent dance pattern, but rather convey excitement, struggle, and emotional arousal. The artist has chosen a moment of maximum chaos and bodily expressiveness, with figures reaching, hanging, and gesticulating in all directions. The hanging figure on the left and the monkey climbing the timber above draw the eye upward, while the central sow anchors the composition. The fine hatching throughout creates a sense of movement and agitation through technique as well as composition.

The artist

The catalogue identifies the artist as Gustav Konrad Sus, though verification of this attribution and biographical details about Sus are not available in standard print references. The style is consistent with mid-16th-century German or Dutch satirical printmaking, a tradition that included works by figures such as Sebald Beham and Hanns Burgkmair. If the attribution is correct, Sus was part of a flourishing culture of engravers producing narrative and satirical prints for a mercantile and educated urban audience.

The period

This engraving dates to a period of vigorous development in northern European print culture, when engraving and woodcut allowed wide dissemination of satirical, moral, and narrative imagery. The mid-16th century saw intense interest in fables, folk tales, and animal allegory as vehicles for both entertainment and instruction. In the visual arts, exaggerated gesture and distorted anatomy were deployed for comic and didactic effect. The dress and domestic setting place the scene in a recognizably contemporary context, allowing viewers to see themselves and their own follies reflected in animal antics.

Where it lives

The work is recorded as sourced from Wikimedia Commons, with no collection or holding institution specified in the catalogue record. It survives as a print, likely from an original plate, and its current location is unknown. The image appears to be a digital reproduction of an engraving held in a public or institutional archive.

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