The singerie genre and the fashion for monkeys in human dress in Flanders and France

The depiction of monkeys in human guise in various comic situations became a distinct genre in the 16th and 17th centuries. This parodic genre was called singerie, from the French for "monkey business".

Monkeys in human attire first appeared in Flemish painting; it is enough to name Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Two Monkeys" of 1562, after which many Flemings began to paint monkeys in human costumes and in circumstances proper to people. By the 17th century it was already hard to imagine the interior of a house in Flanders without an amusing scene with monkeys. By the 18th century the fashion had seized other European countries too, spreading with particular force in France.

In the Château de Chantilly there is an entire room decorated after the drawings of Christophe Huet, a popular artist of the singerie genre

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The singerie genre and the fashion for monkeys in human dress in Flanders and France

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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