The Dog in the Manger
Anonymous, British, 18th century British
Publisher Carington Bowles I British
Not on view
In a barn with high windows, a tethered horse startles as a small white poodle barks from a manger. The title comes from a fable by Aesop that describes a dog sleeping in a hay-filled manger, awakened by a returning ox, at which it then barks and prevents from eating. The moral applies to people who control something valued by others, but of no use to themselves, which they refuse to share.
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