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Boy with a Monkey

Gottfried Libalt

Basic information

ID: Ж-4232
Author: Gottfried Libalt
Name: Boy with a Monkey
Date of creation: 17th c.
Country: Germany
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 78 x 58 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: genre art
Provenance: the Rzewuski collection (Pidhirtsi Castle)
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Gottfried Libalt
Artist's lifetime: 1610–1673
Country: Germany
Biography: Gottfried Liebalt was a German artist. Known mainly for his still lifes, he also painted landscapes and portraits. He worked in Hamburg, Krakow, and Vienna. The artist was famous during his lifetime and later forgotten for several centuries. Today, there are at most 30 paintings by Gottfried Liebalt in the world, one of which is part of the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery collection.

Object description

The painting was attributed to an unknown artist. However, it is now known for sure that Gottfried Libalt executed it. He was a prominent 17th-century German artist who specialised in genre scenes and still lifes. In this work, Gottfried Libalt depicted an elegantly dressed young man with a monkey sitting on his shoulders and rummaging in his hair. This plot was most likely based on 16th-century German engravings, in which the monkey often served as a personification of human stupidity. However, the artist gave this theme a new twist. In this case, the monkey represents ignorance and depravity, the false values and perverted concepts it instils in its young owner's head.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Boy with a Monkey

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