Author:

Keywords:

Flemish art, Satire

Abstract:

Satirical scenes of monkeys in human attire were much in vogue in seventeenth-century Flemish painting. Well-dressed monkeys are shown, feasting in kitchens, taverns and guardrooms, or as quacks, soldiers, painters, schoolmasters and speculators in tulip bulbs. The genre flourished in Antwerp in particular. These works, often painted on copper or panel and of modest size, adorned the walls of a good many art cabinets. Prominent and influential artists such as Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) can be considered as the founding fathers of the specialist genre. Subsequently Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573-1647) and Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-78) also began painting monkey scenes. The foremost exponent of the genre was however David Teniers the Younger (1610-90), who together with his younger brother Abraham (1629-70), assured the continuing popularity of monkey satire. Works by Nicolaes van Veerendael (1626-91), Jan van Kessel (1626-79), Andries Snellinck (1587-1653), Paul de Vos (1595-1678) and a number of unidentified masters (e.g. the monogrammist CDF) have also surfaced. For a long period of time research into this kind of pictures remained more or less terra incognita. Specialist literature is scarce, outdated and highly incomplete. My dissertation seeks to remedy this lacuna in art history. These monkey satires, extant in large numbers, have now for the first time been studied as a whole. A catalogue raisonné by subject brings together hundreds of paintings, most of which unpublished, but also drawings, prints and occasionaly other media. Five chapters delve into the art- and cultural-historical context and origins of the genre. The first three chapters discuss the presence, the reception and the multi-layered symbolical meaning of monkeys in the early modern Low Countries. In the fourth chapter humor and morality is explored through a number of case studies. Literature, emblems, music, dance, theater, science and zoology contribute to a multidisciplinary discussion of our subject. In chapter five the specificity of the Antwerp genre is further analysed. The first part singles out a number of precursors in sixteenth-century printmaking and tapestry production. The second part outlines the transition from print to painting and the genesis of an independent pictorial genre. Particular attention is paid to the networks of the artists involved and their creative use of artistic examples.