Liberality and Correction: the Eagle and the Wolf
Two bestiary allegories on generous sharing and on self-correction
A mirror-script page of Leonardo's moral bestiary with two allegories. Liberality is figured by the eagle, which is never so hungry that it does not leave part of its prey to the birds around it, which depend on it as courtiers to feed. Correction is figured by the wolf, which, creeping around a stall and setting its foot down wrongly so as to make a noise, bites its own foot to correct itself of the error.
On this page
Liberalita: the eagle that shares its prey
Of the eagle it is said that it is never so hungry that it does not leave part of its prey to the birds around it. Those birds, unable to feed themselves, must become courtiers of the eagle, for in this way they are fed.
Correzzione: the wolf that bites its own foot
When the wolf goes stealthily around a stall of livestock and by chance sets its foot down wrongly so as to make a noise, it bites its own foot. It does so to correct itself of such an error.