The document summarizes the representation of apes in medieval art from early Christianity through the Gothic period. It discusses how apes were depicted as the Devil in early Christian works, as symbols of vice or lust in fables and bestiaries of the Romanesque period, and as humorous parodies of human behavior in marginalia and tapestries of the Gothic period. Skulls and depictions of real apes from archaeological sites also demonstrate their increasing presence in Europe. Over time, the ape shifted from solely representing the Devil to broader depictions of vice or as entertainers.

1. Monkeys, Monkeys, Monkeys Galore!
The Representation of Apes
in Medieval Art
Mónica Ann Walker Vadillo
University of Waterloo
monica.ann.walker@gmail.com

2. Apes:
The Archaeological Record
Green Monkey Skull. One skull from
the Cathedral of Ontrato, Ampulia,
12th c. Another one from Leiden,
14th or 15th c.
Ryorik Gorodische palace Cappuchin monkey
Russia ca.1180 . Barbary skull. 16th c. Italy.
ape skull.

3. Ape Types
The tailed ape or monkey
The tailless or
Barbary ape
The Baboon

4. The Ape: The Classical Attitude
The ape must have descended from men who
failed to heed some Divine injunction and in
punishment for their hubris had been debased
to the infra-human level.
As an unworthy pretender to human status, a
grotesque caricature of man, the ape became
the prototype of the trickster, the sycophant,
the hypocrite, the coward as well as of
extreme physical ugliness.

5. The Ape: The Classical and Early
Christian Sources
Aesop (5th c. BCE): Fables. Stories with anthropomorphic animals that
illustrate a moral lesson.
Anonymous writer (2nd c. CE): The Physiologus. Didactic text consisting
of descriptions of animals, birds, etc.
“The ape had a beginning, but he has no end (that is no tail); at
the outset he was one of the archangels, but his end is not in view.
Now the ape, not having a tail, is without species, and his rear
without a tail is vile; like the devil, he does not have a good end.”
Solinus (3rd c. CE): Collectanea rerum memorabilium ('Collection of
Curiosities').
Characteristics of apes: they like to imitate men, they are
excessively fond of their offspring, they rejoice when the moon is
full and grieve when it wanes.

6. The Ape as the Devil: Origins
BABI: Egyptian god
associated to the
underworld.

7. The Ape as the Devil in
Medieval Art
The Sttutgart Psalter, 9th century. North Eastern France.
Psalm 77, verses 51.52: “And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief
of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham. But made his own people to
go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

8. The Ape as the Devil
Baptismal font of Master Roberto in San Frediano
Lucca, Italy. Late 12th c.

9. The Ape as the Devil in
Medieval Art
The Temptations of Christ, Puerta de las Platerías, Santiago de
Compostela, Spain. Early 12th century.

10. The Ape as the Sinner:
The Medieval Attitude and Sources
Bernardus Silvestris (12th c.): De mundi universitate.
The ape becomes the image of man, but a deformed image representing man
in a state of degeneracy.
Revival of the Fable tradition in the form of the animal epic, Reynard de Fox (12th
c.), based on Aesop's Fables.
The Bestiaries (12th­14th c.): A compendium of beasts based on the Physiologus.
New role of the ape as the victim of the devil rather than the devil himself.
Mendicant Orders use of animal stories as exempla in their sermons (12th c). The
most important exempla was created by Jaques de Vitry.
Increase visibility of apes and their trainers into Western Europe (12th c.)

11. The Ape from the Fables
Beatus of Saint­Server, France, 12th c. and misericords of St.
George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, England, 15th c.

12. The Ape from the Fables
The Bayeaux tapestry 11th c. and capital from St. Martin of
Frómista, Spain, 12th c.

13. The Ape in the Bestiaries
Hunters pursuing the mother
ape and her twins. Examples
from the Bestiaries at the
Pierpont Morgan Library, at
Aberdeen University Library,and
at the British Library. 12th­13th
centuries.

14. The Ape in the Bestiaries
Hunters pursuing the mother ape and her twins.
Examples from the Bestiaries at the Bodleian library and
the Bibliothéque nationale of France, 12th ­13th c.

15. The Ape in Romanesque Sculpture
Ape and Hunter in Saint­Michel­de Cuxa, North of Spain, 12th
c., and in a capital of the Abbey of Mozac, France, 12th c.

16. The Ape in Romanesque Sculpture
Apes with ropes, St. Quirce, Spain, 12th c.

17. The Ape in Romanesque Sculpture
Ape capitals in the Romanesque
church of the monastery of Silos
and the cathedral of Jaca and
Loarre. North of Spain. 12th c.

18. The Ape in Romanesque Sculpture
Apes and Camel, from St­Gilles du Gard, France, 12th c.

19. The Ape in
Romanesque
Sculpture
Monkey and his trainer in the
Cathedral of Bayeux, 12th c.

20. Apes in Gothic Art
Apes as the symbol of Lust in a Flemish
Psalter and the French Voeux du Paon,
14th c.

21. The Ape in Gothic Art
Monkeys playing instruments from
several French Books of Hours and a
Pontificial, 13th ­15th c.

22. The Ape in Gothic Art
Monkeys mimicking human behaviour
from a Psalter in the Bodleian Library,
14th century.

23. The Ape in Gothic Art
French and Flemish Books of
Hours, 14th­15th c.

24. The Ape in Gothic Art
Monkey droleires or babooneries
in two French Manuscripts from
the Pierpont Morgan Library, 14th
century.

25. The Ape in Gothic Art
Monkey Beaker,
France, 15th c.

26. The Ape in Gothic Art
The sense of Taste, Smell, Touch. Tapestry at the
Museum of Cluny, France, 15th c.

27. The Ape in Gothic Art
The sense of Taste, Smell, Touch. Tapestry at the
Musée de Cluny, 15th century.

28. The Ape in Gothic Art
The sense of Taste, Smell, Touch. Tapestry at the
Musée de Cluny, 15th century.

29. The Ape in Gothic Art
The sense of Taste, Smell, Touch. Tapestry at the
Musée de Cluny, 15th century.

30. The Ape in Medieval Art:
Some Conclusions
Early Christian Period
The Ape as the Devil
Romanesque Period
The Ape in Fables
The Ape in the Bestiaries
The mother ape represents the sinner with the favored young
representing the pleasures of the flesh or riches and the hated
young representing the goods of the soul or the weight of the sins.
The hunter can then represent the devil taking the sinner to hell
or Death.
The Ape in Romanesque Art
Ape as a generalized vice, but usually lust.
The ape as an entertainer and a zoological curiosity.
The Gothic Period
The ape in the margins representing a parody of human behavior,
bits of simian lore or representations of real apes and monkeys.
There is always a humorous element to the monkey in these
representations.