Artistic uses  

One of La Fontaine's early illustrators was the artist  Jean-Baptiste Oudry
 ,  [21]  who was also
artistic director at both the  Beauvais  and the  Gobelins tapestry works  . In consequence of this a series based on La
Fontaine's fables designed by Oudry was produced by them during the 1740s and
included "The Fox and the Grapes". These stayed in production for some forty
years and were imitated by other factories in France and abroad,  [22]  being
used not just as wall hangings but for chair covers and other domestic
purposes. Furniture craftsmen in France also used the fables as themes and
took these with them when they emigrated. Among them was Martin Jugiez (d.
1815), who had a workshop in the American city of  Philadelphia
 where the still surviving Fox and Grapes
chest of drawers was produced.  [23]

 A wooden
panel from an 18th-century  chest of drawers 

The  Sèvres porcelain  works
used the fables on their china as well as reproducing Pierre Julien's statue
from a preliminary model in 1784, even before the finished product was
exhibited.  [24]  Another domestic use for the fable was as an architectural
medallion on the outside of mansions, of which there is still an example
dating from the turn of the 19th century on the Avenue Felix Fauré in Paris.
[25]  A medallion of another kind, cast in bronze by Jean Vernon (1897–1975),
was produced as part of his renowned series based on the fables in the 1930s.
That of "The Fox and the Grapes" features two foxes scrambling up a trellis
with what looks like more success than La Fontaine's creation.  [26]

There was as diverse a use of the fables in England and from as early a date.
Principally this was on domestic china and includes a Chelsea candlestick
(1750) and a Worcester jug (1754) in the 18th century;  [27]  a Brownhills
alphabet plate (1888) in the 19th century;  [28]  and a collector's edition
from the Knowles pottery (1988) in the 20th.  [29]  Series based on Aesop's
fables became popular for pictorial tiles towards the end the 19th century, of
which Minton Hollins produced a particularly charming example illustrating
"The Fox and the Grapes". On this a vixen is accompanied by her cubs, who make
ineffectual leaps at the grapes while the mother contemplates them with her
paws clasped behind her.  [30]

There have also been the following musical settings:

*  Louis-Nicolas Clérambault  in the early 18th century
*  Benjamin Godard  , the fifth of his _Six Fables de La Fontaine_ for voice and piano (op. 17, 1872–79)  [31]
*  Louis Lacombe  in _Fables de La Fontaine_ , (op. 72 1875)
*  Charles Lecocq  , the first of his _Six Fables de Jean de la Fontaine_ for voice and piano (1900)
*  Mario Versepuy ") (1882-1972) for voice and piano (1921)  [32]
*  Marie-Madeleine Duruflé  , the third of her _6 Fables de La Fontaine_ for  a cappella  choir (1960)  [33]
*  Herbert Callhoff  in German translation (1963)
*  Ned Rorem  , one of the 'five very short operas' in his _Fables_ (1971). A setting of Marianne Moore's translation of La Fontaine, this segment is more a cantata for chorus of two and tenor soloist (representing the fox); its action is all in the programmatic music.  [34]
*  Andre Asriel  , _Der Fuchs und die Trauben_ , the fourth of his _6 Fabeln nach Aesop_ for mixed  a cappella  voices (1972).  [35]
*  Bob Chilcott  , among the five English translations in his _Aesop's Fables_ for piano and choir (2008).  [36]
*  Lefteris Kordis ") , the eighth of nine compositions for octet and voice in his "Aesop Project" (2010).  [37]