Sengerie: the meaning of monkeys in painting

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

December 14 - International Day of the Monkeys - we talk about a fun and instructive genre of European painting called sengerie.

Doppelganger

Translated from French, singerie means monkey antics, pranks, antics. In a figurative sense, this is a comic grimace or a funny trick. The English equivalent of the title is monkey scene.

In art, the monkey has traditionally figured as the most accurate and vividly recognizable, but imperfect, caricature copy of a person. In European culture, this animal has long been considered the embodiment of vices and sins. In Christian symbolism, monkeys often embodied demons; the devil was called "the monkey of the god." Albrecht Dürer's engraving "Madonna with the Monkey" depicts the chained monkey as a symbol of tamed passions.

Albrecht Durer. Madonna and Monkey, c. 1498. Source: wikimedia.org

In a secular environment, the monkey was identified with stupidity, extravagance, licentiousness, carelessness, vanity. So, initially, the image of a monkey allowed artists to allegorically condemn and ridicule unseemly human properties.

Profitable business

Comic monkey scenes were common in 16th century Flemish painting. According to one of the art criticism versions, the beginning of this tradition was the famous work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder "Two Monkeys", which is most often interpreted as a visual parable about the sin of stinginess and the sin of wastefulness.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Two monkeys, 1562. Source: wikimedia.org

The high consumer demand for such stories has turned them into a lucrative business. Around 1575, the enterprising engraver Peter van der Borcht incorporated the monkey figures into a separate series of graphic works. The series was a great success, cementing the popularity of the sengerie.

Peter van der Borcht. Nursery, approx. 1575. Source: wikimedia.org

Further, interest in this genre of bourgeois customers increases after the creation of the East India Company in 1600, which led to the appearance in Europe of previously unknown exotic breeds of monkeys. Frans Francken the Younger, Sebastian Vranks, Jana van Kessel the Elder made good money on the Sengerie.

But the main popularizers of monkey tricks are considered the Flemish masters David Teniers the Younger and his brother Abraham. Complicated and multi-figured compositions reveal the contradictory duality of the animal nature of man. How do you like a hairdresser, where helpful monkeys groom imposing cats?

Abraham Teniers. Barber shop with monkeys and cats, between 1633 and 1667. Source: wikimedia.org

But the stern class teacher in the monkey school arranged a demonstrative flogging for the edification of negligent students. The execution is watched by an open volume on a writing table - a catechism or Latin grammar. Another book, deliberately placed in the foreground, is an allusion to the inability to properly dispose of knowledge.

David Teniers the Younger. Monkey school, approx. 1660. Source: wikimedia.org

The monkey guardhouse performed by David Teniers copies a realistic scene of soldiers resting over cards and wine. A pinch of drama is given to it by the appearance of the night watchmen, who detained the frightened cat to death. The funnel on the head of the mate and one of the soldiers' bowler hat instead of a hat hint at the illegality of the behavior of the audience, referring to the well-known image of "fools in power."

There is also a version that this picture and the work of Sebastian Vranks is a veiled criticism of the abuse of power by the military in the Southern Netherlands at that time.

David Teniers the Younger. Guard room with monkeys, approx. 1633. Source: wikimedia.org

Sebastian Vranks. Allegorical battle between armed monkeys and cats in a Flemish landscape, c. 1630. Source: wikimedia.org

Then the glorious monkey tradition was continued by Nicholas van Verendael. He collaborated with David Teniers the Younger in Antwerp and was well acquainted with works of this kind. Sometimes you can't tell right away whether people or monkeys are depicted.

Nicholas Van Verendael. The Monkey Feast, or the King Drinks, 1686. Source: wikimedia.org

Art as a "monkey of nature"

Sengeri flourished during the Rococo era with its bizarre, fantasy forms. The genre was especially popular in France, where a fashion for the so-called. "Monkey rooms". A brilliant example is the interiors of the Chantilly castle: monkeys in woven upholstery of walls and furniture, stucco decorations, carpet designs. The authorship is attributed to the artist Christoph Hue, whose expressive images also served as a model for the famous Meissen ensemble of painted porcelain miniatures.

Christophe Hue. Monkey house: fishermen, approx. 1739. Source: gallerix.ru

In the sengerie of this period, not only the everyday activities of people were played up, but also current political events, fashion trends, and creative practices. Thus, the programmatic work of Antoine Watteau is a response to the aesthetic discussions of his time, an illustration of the polemic idea: "Art is the monkey of nature."

Antoine Watteau. Monkey copy of the sculptor, approx. 1710. Source: wikimedia.org

Over time, sengeries become more intimate, didacticism weakens, topicality is softened by the grace of artistic presentation. Jean-Baptiste Chardin brought out a keen antiquarian in the guise of a chimpanzee. With the air of a real connoisseur, he intently examines an old coin through a magnifying glass. The ottoman standing next to it can barely support the carelessly piled pile of books - most likely numismatics manuals.

Jean-Baptiste Chardin. Antique Monkey, approx. 1725. Source: wikimedia.org

Alexander-Gabriel Dean's painting is an inventive satire on the incompetence of arrogant salon art critics. Dressed ape-men study the landscape in the style of Nicolas Poussin with passion. On the spread of a book thrown on the floor, the words "Expertise … We are the undersigned appraisers …" So the verdict is ready in advance? What hypocrisy!

Alexander-Gabriel Dean. Experts, or Connoisseurs of Art, 1837. Source: wikimedia.org

This mocking and instructive scene has become the object of many imitations. So, Emmanuel Notermann changed only the plot of the canvas discussed by the experts, leaving comical poses and characteristic details unchanged.

Emmanuelle Notermann. Connoisseurs in the studio, ser. XIX century. Source: wikimedia.org

Overcoming borders

Formed in Flemish painting and culminating in French Rococo, the sengerie genre expanded its geography in the 19th century. Here one cannot do without mentioning the American artist William Holbrooke Byrd. One of his most famous works parodies the intellectual circle. The central group of characters is animatedly discussing something that interested them in a scientific publication. Five more tomes languish on and under the table.

This implicit but significant detail hints at the superficial nature of the discussion. It seems that the "pundits" with a clever look are just looking at the illustrations, imitating the work of thought.

William Holbrooke Bird. Scientists at Work, 1894. Source: wikimedia.org

Echoes of sengerie also appear in animal painting of the century before last. However, animal painters paint monkeys not for the sake of ridicule of people, but out of admiration for the naturalness, inimitable plasticity, and hilarious habits of animals. If allegoricality remains, it becomes extremely transparent.

A touching scene with monkey “readers” was captured by the German artist Gabriel Max. Monkeys pore over the first volume of the philosophical treatise "Dualism". The fate of the treatise is unenviable: the torn pages indicate the true intentions of the tailed readers. Now this picture is actively played in memes and demotivators.