The Ape Tied in a Courtyard (1520/30): Artwork and History

The Ape Tied in a Courtyard (1520/30) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jean de Gourmont French, 1506-1551.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Exotic animals made popular pets in the early modern era (from the late 15th to 18th centuries), as seen in the extravagant courtyard depicted in this roundel. The ape’s owner cannot be far off, as it is attached to the wall; the lone pear the animal attempts to reach with its foot has been left cruelly just out of reach.

Object facts

• Title: The Ape Tied in a Courtyard
• Date: 1520/30
• Artist attribution: Jean de Gourmont French, 1506-1551
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Engraving in black on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 8.5 × 8.4 cm (3 3/8 × 3 5/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1063

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.