Collection
/
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Group of Three Monkeys

ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

The British archaeologist and Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie found at least twenty-three crudely modeled figures of monkeys in a dump at Amarna in 1891–92. Some of the figures play harps, lyres, or flutes. Others hold their young, eat or drink, and even drive chariots. These figures have been interpreted as popular caricatures of the royal family. If this was their true purpose, then acceptance of royal dogma, including respect for the king and the god Aten, was not nearly as complete as Akhenaten imagined.

Caption

Group of Three Monkeys, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 3 15/16 × 1 5/8 × 1/2 in. (10 × 4.2 × 1.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.81. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Group of Three Monkeys

Date

ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.

Dynasty

late Dynasty 18

Period

New Kingdom, Amarna Period

Geography

Possible place made: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

Medium

Limestone, pigment

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

3 15/16 × 1 5/8 × 1/2 in. (10 × 4.2 × 1.3 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour

Accession Number

16.81

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