Two Monkeys (Bruegel)
Two Monkeys or Two Chained Monkeys is a 1562 painting by Dutch and Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The work is now in the Gemäldegalerie of the Berlin State Museums.
Analysis
The painting depicts two monkeys shackled to an iron ring beneath an archway. Behind them, in the background, lies the city of Antwerp. The monkeys are red-capped mangabeys and, due to Antwerp's status as a port city, were probably taken from their natural habitat by animal traders.Bruegel likely drew the symbol of two chained monkeys from Quattrocento Italian artist Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of the Magi. In that work, two monkeys are seen similarly chained under the central arc. Simultaneously paralleling and reinventing the meaning of the monkeys in Gentile's work, Bruegel used the chained monkeys to symbolize the follies of men and how they chain themselves and each other, according to art critic Kelly Grovier. Margaret A. Sullivan of Montana State University corroborates, stating that the two monkeys are seen as a "small allegory" of "foolish sinners, and their imprisonment is the result of an immoderate attitude towards material wealth." Specifically, Sullivan finds that the left monkey symbolizes avarice and greed while the right monkey represents prodigality. Sullivan drew these conclusions based on observations that Two Monkeys exhibits a "fundamental resemblance" to another of Bruegel's paintings, Dull Gret.