Part of a pair of woodcuts from an 1497 edition of Aesop’s Fables. This fellow is part of the story about the Crane and the Peacock.
What it boils down to is the peacock, a creature most prideful about his tail, is shown to be merely ornamental when compared to the simply-colored crane who can fly.
Whether you use this vintage crane woodcut alone or paired back with his friend, both can be colorized as simply or dramatically as you choose.
I’ve shown a smaller image of the crane woodcut below. If you would like to use this image for your own artistic endeavors, be sure to click on it to see the largest version we have.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
