Dead fox and birds — another Early Modern erotic metaphor – Album Amicorum: Early Modern Stammbuch Iconography & related

Yet another early modern German erotic metaphor — both with and without a fox. Here it seems possible to point to a particular print as the origin of the motif in the albums — a woodcut by Jost Amman in the Kunstliche wolgerissene new figuren non allerlai jag (Frankfurt 1582, 1592) — BELOW. The words for fowl [Vogel] and fowling [vogeln] were traditional German euphemisms for the phallus and for intercourse, so when Amman’s fowler tells the young woman in the caption below the image that he’s brought her the birds because he knows she has a great liking for birds — the sexual innuendo would be obvious to a contemporary. Subsequently, the fox is added to the birds, as first in the Philotheca Corneliana (Frankfurt, 1619), the illustration again captioned with obvious innuendo: He: “I’ve got a fox and birds with me, you can have it here if you want” She: “I’m very happy to receive you, I have always desired birds/fowling”

from the *Kunstliche wolgerissene new figuren von allerlai jagt* (Frankfurt 1582, 1592)

from the album of Philipp von Damm (dated entries 1577-99), copying the 1582, 1592 Amman woodcut. Seibold Collection

The glass pane below — including Amman’s verse caption — has recently been attributed to Andreas Stein by Uwe Gast & Christa Syrer, Zwei Glasgemälde mit den Wappen Albertinelli und Giorgini in Coburg