We’re celebrating the Year of the Monkey by highlighting a few works featuring the animal of the hour. Some of the monkeys are out in the open, but for others it takes a little more detective work to spot them in the paint. Happy Chinese New Year!
Stirrup-Spout Vessel: Monkey Head, Moche, Early Intermediate Period, Peru, A.D. 200-450, ceramic and slip paints, Dallas Museum of Art, The Nora and John Wise Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the Eugene McDermott Family, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Murchison 1976.W.107
Pendant: Monkey, Veraguas, Panama, A.D. 800-1200, gold, Dallas Museum of Art, the Nora and John Wise Collection, bequest of John Wise 1983.W.275
Pendant: Monkey, Veraguas, Panama, A.D. 800-1200, gold, Dallas Museum of Art, The Nora and John Wise Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the Eugene McDermott Family, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Murchison 1976.W.276
Monkey, 900, Peru, silver, Dallas Museum of Art, The Nora and John Wise Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the Eugene McDermott Family, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Murchison 1976.W.1136
Cornelis Saftleven, College of Animals (detail), 1655, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle Collection, gift of the Hoblitzelle Foundation 1987.32
Ear ornament or pendant (mamuli), early 20th century, Sumba, Lesser Sunda Islands, East Sumba, Indonesia, gold, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Sarah Dorsey Hudson 1991.370
“Monkeys Three” pattern toothpick holder, Unknown, n.d., glass, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Glass Club Collection 1992.500
Charger (detail), Japan, c. 1900, bronze, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, The John R. Young Collection, Mrs. John B. O’Hara Fund 1995.200.FA
Architectural sculpture depicting a monkey (ba’e), Ono Niha people, Nias, Indonesia, late 19th–early 20th century, wood, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc. 1999.182.McD
Bead: monkey profile, Olmec, Mexico or Guatemala, Middle to Late Formative period, 500–200 BC, jadeite, Dallas Museum of Art, given in memory of Jerry L. Abramson by his estate 2008.86
François Auguste Biard, Seasickness on an English Corvette (Le mal de mer, au bal, abord d’une corvette Anglaise) (detail), 1857, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of J.E.R. Chilton 2011.27
Kimberly Daniell is Senior Manager of Communications, Public Affairs, and Social Media Strategy at the DMA.