A Seated Monkey on a Chain
Also titled Een zittende aap aan een ketting
Hendrick Goltzius (Bracht, 1558–1617)
1592 - 1602
- Medium
- paper, chalk
- Classification
- drawing
- Dimensions
- height 406 mm x width 300 mm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
About this work
With masterly strokes and hatching, Hendrick Goltzius drew this Asian rhesus monkey, recognizable by its pinkish face, framed by fur. He devoted a great deal of attention to the faithful rendering of the fur, cleverly using the white of the paper to create subtle contrasts of light and dark. A fettered monkey had a special meaning, alluding to sinful man who is shackled to the earth through his lust for wealth.
