Still life with monkeys

Still Life with Monkeys, 1635, in the National Gallery Prague, introduces primates into Snyders's still-life vocabulary as living animated elements — a choice that simultaneously references the exotic luxury goods trade and the symbolic tradition of the ape as imitator (the Latin simia, monkey, related to similis, similar). Monkeys interacting with fruit and food had a long tradition in Netherlandish decoration, appearing in manuscript borders and tapestries before entering easel painting. Their association with mimicry connected them to discussions of art itself — the painter as imitator of nature was frequently symbolised by the ape copying a human gesture. For Snyders's collecting audience, exotic primates were also status symbols: the ownership of monkeys by wealthy households was well documented in seventeenth-century Antwerp. The Prague National Gallery, which survived the upheavals of the twentieth century with its Flemish holdings largely intact, holds important examples of Flemish Baroque painting.

Monkey anatomy presented a challenge distinct from Snyders's more typical animal subjects: their humanoid faces and expressive hands required a blend of animal naturalism and facial expressivity usually reserved for human figures. The monkeys' fur is rendered with its specific texture — finer and more varied than dog fur, with different regional densities across the body. Their interaction with the fruit requires the still-life elements and the living animals to be integrated compositionally rather than presented as separate categories.