February 8, 2016 marks the start of the Year of the Monkey.
Opinions about the monkey are quite sharply and clearly divided along the East-West mental line. In the countries of the East, especially in Egypt, India and China, the monkey symbolizes wisdom, courage, dexterity and selflessness. In the religion of many peoples of the East, the monkey was revered as a sacred animal. In Egypt, the baboon was seen as a symbol of wisdom, in China, the female gibbon personified maternal care, and in Japan, a toy monkey is still considered a child's amulet.
Another thing is the West, where the monkey has become the main character in caustic fables and an ugly caricature of man. For Europeans, the monkey personified such vicious human qualities as stupidity, vanity, imbalance, greed, laziness and lust, and in relation to a woman, also coquetry, curiosity, frivolity and talkativeness.
David Teniers the Younger (1610 Antwerp - 1690 Brussels) Guardroom with Monkeys
Monkeys - exotic animals from distant lands - have been common in Western Europe since the early Middle Ages. Documents testify to this, and monkeys are quite common in the visual arts. What attracted people and artists to these animals so much? What place do they occupy in a series of symbols and what do they say to art lovers?
David Teniers the Younger. monkey festival
Europe was invaded by primates - such a conclusion suggests itself when considering the illustrations of ancient manuscripts and paintings by old masters. And partly this is true. In the thirteenth century, monkeys even lived at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris! Trained in "courtly manners" and the art of tournament fighting, animals were often driven by histrions (stray buffoons) for the amusement of ordinary people.
In Medieval Europe, domesticated monkeys were kept at royal courts and in rich houses as an attribute of prosperity. The animals lived in monasteries, and even churches.
With all the popularity of these funny animals, the church did not have reverence for them. The roots of such a negative attitude go back to early Christianity, when in ancient Egypt (“the land of darkness”, from which, according to the Old Testament, Moses fled) the god Thoth was worshiped in the form of a baboon.
In 391, in Alexandria, after the pogrom of the pagans, the Christians left only one statue of the sacred baboon in order to be able to demonstrate the idols of the "infidels" to the whole world. With the establishment of Christianity, the monkey became a recognized enemy of the church, and in sermons the words "devil" and "monkey" were sometimes used as synonyms.
Medieval morality branded innocent animals for centuries, defining a clear role for them. Among the early European miniatures (XV century), the plot of creation by God is known: animals. All animals are usually located on the left side of the Lord. Moreover, the mythical unicorn was always depicted first - the favorite of the Almighty, who holds this slender blessed animal by the mouth (there is an opinion that the unicorn personified Christ, and his horn - the cross, the sacrificial death of the Savior). Further, there are other animals on the left. And only one monkey is to the right of God. At the same time, the unicorn and the monkey are spatially placed on the same plane, thus personifying the antagonism of the forces of good and evil.
In Lukas Moser's painting "Mary with the Child", as well as in his "Last Communion of Mary Magdalene" (altar), a monkey is specially introduced as an antipode to the bright and pure image of Christ.
LUCAS MOSER. Journey of Mary Magdalene. The outer wing of the altar of St. Mary Magdalene. 1431. Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Tiefenborn (Germany)
This is the meaning of Albrecht Durer's "Madonna with a Monkey": the baby sits in her arms with a bird, the monkey is located on the other side, of course, at the feet of the Mother of God, again, as a contrast.
Albrecht Durer. Madonna with a monkey
Hans Baldung. Virgin and Child
In I. Meckenem's painting "Ecce Homo", the monkey is chained to the bars of the prison window and placed in the foreground on the same line with Christ, but opposite him. Here she is not only his sinful opposite, but also a certain involvement in the throne of the pagan tyrant Pontius Pilate.
Israel von Meckenem. Ecce Homo
Even Augustine the Blessed in the 4th century. from the Nativity of Christ, he preached that the devil is "God's monkey": insidious, cruel, merciless and lustful. The last property of primates has gained particular popularity. Even Dream Interpretations, published in the 9th-13th centuries, interpreted the appearance of a monkey in a dream as a sign of the upcoming "Pleasantness".
The allegory of the image of a monkey - the embodiment of the sin of lust, can be traced in many plots.
Frans Franken the Younger. Man makes a choice between Virtue and Sin
The Renaissance is characterized by the desire to multiply meanings and pair rather distant levels of perception. The Renaissance inherited a taste for symbolism from the late Middle Ages, but at the same time a certain transformation of perception took place: the Middle Ages sought to build a hierarchy of meanings, ascending from the literal meaning through allegory to the moral, and then the anagogical meaning, which, using Dante's formula, "through the signified things expresses the highest things involved in eternal glory", while the Renaissance preferred a juxtaposition of meanings. Medieval perception strove to organize itself as a temple, while Renaissance perception strove to organize itself as a cabinet of curiosities, where objects interact with each other, "nod" at each other, but at the same time remain quite autonomous.
How ambiguous the animal symbols found on the canvases of Renaissance artists are shown by the plot associated with the images of the monkey.
In Stefano di Giovanni's Journey of the Magi, in front of the caravan with gifts from Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar, a monkey sits on the back of one of the horses. It is possible that the author wanted to emphasize the exotic nature of the offering to the infant Christ. But, given the active use of the language of symbols in sacred painting, it is most likely that the defenseless monkey means the sensual, animal nature of man, which now, with the birth of the Savior, is destined to bow before Him.
Stefano di Giovanni. Journey of the Magi (C. 1435)
This thesis is easily recognized in the central panel of the triptych in the church of Gummarus in Lier (Belgium) by Gossen van der Weyden (1516). In the scene of the marriage of the Virgin Mary, in the lower left corner there is a monkey hugging a dog,
Gossen Van Den Weyden "Marriage of the Virgin Mary"
This can be confirmed by the "Crucifixion" (c. 1480-1495, Uffizi Gallery), created by the Master of the Virgin among the virgins (Virgo inter Virgines). An unusual detail is woven into the traditional iconography of the Crucifixion: a monkey sits next to the skull at the foot of the Cross.
Master of the Virgin among the virgins (Virgo inter Virgines). Crucifixion. (C. 1480-1495. Uffizi Gallery)
The traditional iconography is intended to remind the viewer that the blood from the Savior's wounds is poured onto Adam's skull, washing away Original Sin. The Master of the Virgin among the virgins takes another step towards the ultimate visualization of the doctrine of Salvation: the atonement of Original Sin gives a person the opportunity to free himself from the temptations of this world, where he was nothing more than a plaything of passions, a hostage of his fallen nature, which pushed him around, like that depicted by the artist monkey rolling the skull of the Forefather of mankind.
In the XVI century. the monkey began to appear frequently in the scene of the fall of Adam and Eve, although according to the Bible, its presence is not provided for in this episode. However, if it is logical to judge: who, if not an unceremonious monkey with its lustfulness, addiction to fruits, who else, if not her, should provoke the first people to taste the forbidden fruit! The outright fecundity of the baboon, so valued by the ancients, has now become one of the "proofs" of sinfulness emanating from the devil.
Cornelis van Haarlem. The Fall (1592, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
It is not surprising that in the scene of the fall by Jan Gossaert (c. 1525), we find a monkey sitting at the foot of the Tree of Knowledge behind Adam. True, she eats a pear, as if parodying the violation of the ban on eating from the Fruit of the Knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve (c. 1525, Staatliche Museen, Berlin)
Thus, with the advent of the Renaissance, in the 16th century, the official persecution of monkeys by churchmen weakened. Either sexuality has already ceased to be a mortal sin, or the life-giving spirit of the Renaissance was able to deal a crushing blow to obscurantism, but images of monkeys appeared even in cathedrals (albeit extremely rarely) in Cologne, London, Mons. It is from these times that the monkey is increasingly not the devil, but his victim, a sinner, a fallen angel. And in the mysteries, the monkey was already the state of man before the soul entered him.
The restless disposition of monkeys brought their owners a lot of trouble. The French remembered for a long time how, in the 1288th century, monkeys climbed into the courthouse of the Duchy of Burgundy and destroyed the entire archive. To avoid such cases, the "robbers" were simply kept on chains. Even the monkey of Queen Isabella of Bavaria was chained to a wooden bowl. But the artists saw didactic potential in this image. And now a wooden deck means worldly pleasures, and an innocent animal deprived of freedom means “tamed sin”. The monkey chained to the deck by Gossen van der Weyden then personifies "sin bound by virtue."
Hendrik Goltzius. Monkey on a chain, seated. (Amsterdam, 1597)
A kind of parallel to the described range of symbolic meanings that the monkey was endowed with in Renaissance painting can serve as an emblem from the collection of Jacob Typotius "Symbola divina et humana ..." ("Symbols divine and human ...", 1601). Typotius depicts a monkey sitting on a chain, the motto attributed to the emblem reads: "Exacverant dentas suos" ("Sharpen their teeth"),
Jacob Typotius. Symbola divina et humana pontificum, imperatorum, regum (Symbols divine and human...). Prague, 1601
and the explanatory inscription says - "Simiae immundi animalis, qua capitur Genius Luxuriae" ("Monkeys, unclean animals, who are captivated by the Spirit of Lust"). But if Dürer's shackled monkey symbolized "tamed sin", then Typotius gave this image the exact opposite meaning, and it personifies "attachment to sin."
Note: the content of the symbol depends very much on the context, and the more clearly it is given, the more details are present in this context, the tougher the field for unambiguous interpretation. Symbols are not amenable to "alphabetic reading", but obey the rules of a certain "semantic syntax". An example of this is the engraving on the title page of the work of the English philosopher Robert Fludd (1574 - 1637) "Tractatus secundus de naturae simia seu macrocosmi historia" (Second treatise on the natural monkey, or the history of the macrocosm. - Latin), published in Oppenheim in 1618. .
Fludd Robert, Tractatus secundus de naturae simia seu technica macrocosmi historia in partes undicis divisa...Francofurti: sumptibus haeredum Johannis Theodori de Bry, Typis Caspari Rötelii, 1624
On the engraving we see a circle divided into 11 sectors, the symbolic images in which correspond to one of the books of the first part of the treatise devoted to the application of mathematics to various fields of knowledge: "De Arithmetica Militari" (On the mathematics of war. - Lat.), "De Arithmetica Musica" (On the mathematics of music. - Lat.), "De Arithmetica Astronomica et Astrologica" (On the mathematics of astronomy and astrology. - Lat.), "De Arithmetica Memoriali" (On the mathematics of memory. - Lat.). In the center of the circle is depicted a monkey with a pointer This image refers to the sensual nature of knowledge advocated by Fludd, and the engraving itself is something of a pictorial annotation to a treatise.
The conciseness of the composition allows it to become a receptacle for a variety of meanings. A vivid example of this is the famous "Two Monkeys" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1562) from the collection of the Dalem Gallery in Berlin.
Most art historians are inclined to interpret the picture as an allegory of a man enslaved by passions, no longer even striving for freedom, but content with a “miserable feast of three nuts”, embodying earthly blessings.
P. Brueghel. Two Monkeys (1562)
Two animals, chained to one ring, sit, turned away from each other, in the arch of a window overlooking the sea bay with ships. A pair of birds that soar in the air above the sea are an accentuated contrast to the monkeys doomed to captivity. One of the monkeys is turned with its muzzle towards the viewer, but its gaze is directed somewhere past: a little to the side and down, the other sits facing the sea, but looks not at it, but at its feet, and its hunched posture expresses apathy and hopelessness . Next to the monkeys, in the window opening, empty shells are lying around, from which nuts have been shelled. This work of Brueghel caused a lot of interpretations: it was interpreted both as a reflection of the contradiction between the free harmony of nature and the tragic selfishness of man, and as a contrast between the base and spiritual side of human nature, and as a reflection of the limitations of human existence. Perhaps, Horst Voldemar Janson came closest to the interpretation of "Monkeys", considering the picture as a symbol of a person's position in this world, when, enslaved by passions, he no longer even strives for freedom, but is content with a "miserable feast of three nuts", embodying creature comforts. This creature, devoted to the meager comforts of this world, can only cause pity: it is no longer about sinfulness, but about inner doom and longing - and complete forgetfulness of what freedom is.
The motif of freedom given by a monkey for a nutshell is played out in one of the emblems in the book "Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus" (Alcibiades Silenus, that is, Proteus - Latin), published by the Dutch poet and diplomat Jacob Katz and engraver Adrian van de Venne in 1618 For each emblem, the reader was offered three types of interpretive explanations: love interpretation, moral and religious. The XLI emblem that interests us depicts four monkeys leading a round dance to the piper's pipe, and at the same time being distracted from the dance in order to pick up nuts from the ground, which the “hand of Providence” pours for them from the sky, from a cloud.
Jacob Katz. Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus (Alcibiades Silenus, that is, Proteus). Midelburg, 1618. Embl. XLI.
The emblem is preceded by the motto: "Furentem quid delubra avant?" (What is the use of madness in prayers? - lat.).
In the "love part", as an explanation for the emblem, a verse from "Phaedra" by Seneca is given: Amor per coelum volat Regnumque tantum minimus in superos habet (Love sends from heaven, So small that he rules the great), taken from the following context:
Yes, to give free rein to vile vice,
Love called voluptuousness a god,
Giving madness an imaginary divinity.
So, it means that the son will wander all over the earth
He sends Eritsin, so that from the skies he
With a gentle hand poured bold arrows,
And the smallest of all gods is the stronger god!
Everything, all crazy souls are empty thoughts:
The bow of the son, the power of the divine mother.
Seneca. Phaedra. 195 - 203 Per. S. Osherova
These lines are followed by a poem by Jacob Katz himself in Dutch, telling about a young man who hurried to the church to thank God for delivering him from Cupid's arrows, which made the poor man suffer - but he met the sweetest girl along the way, and was so carried away by her that he forgot about good intentions, like "a monkey who forgets the rhythm of the dance every time he sees nuts thrown at his feet." The "moral part" contains a verse from the 2nd Satire of Persia: "O curvae in terris animae" (O souls mired in earthly things and incapable of heavenly things!), followed by a quotation from the "Epistle to the Hebrews", calling: " lest there be among you a fornicator, or a wicked man, who, like Esau, would forfeit his birthright for one meal" (Heb. 12:16). And, finally, in the "religious part" are verses from the "Book of Job": "You see, God does not reject the blameless and does not support the hands of evildoers" (Job 8, 20) and from the Gospel of Matthew: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and righteousness Him, and all this will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). Thus, the emblem sharply contrasts adherence to earthly - love - pleasures and righteousness and likens lustful monkeys, emphasizing the animal nature of passion.
Based on the foregoing, it is not difficult to decipher the meaning contained in the "Portrait of Prince Edward" by Hans Holbein (1541-1542): the monkey in the hands of the young Prince of Wales indicates that he is in perfect control of his passions, although he is almost still a child.
HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger. Edward, Prince of Wales, with Monkey (1541-42, Kunstmuseum, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle)
Yes, and Catherine of Aragon, in all likelihood, also demonstrates the ability to restrain emotions and desires.
Anglo-Flemish School, (16th century). Portrait of Queen Catherine of Aragon, early 1530s
Portrait of a Young Nobleman with a Monkey and a Dog (c.1615 Flemish School)
The monkey, as a tamed sinfulness, can also be found in Hals Dirk's painting Fete Champetre (Feast in Nature, 1627). A cheerful company is resting, sitting at the table and playing music. However, the center of this whole picturesque group is ... a monkey chained to a chair - an undoubted personification of restrained sensuality.
Dirk Hals. Fete Champetre (1627)
Frans Franken the Younger
BERCHEM, Nicolaes. Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbor (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden)
David Teniers the Younger (1610, Antwerp - 1690, Brussels) Die fünf Sinne
It is also noteworthy that the image of a monkey in chains, as a symbol of sin bound by virtue, is present in many medieval canvases, one way or another related to the theme of marriage. They also depict a dog as a symbol of fidelity.
Jan Minze Molenaer. Allegory of marital fidelity. (1633 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond)
Teniers David the Younger (1610-1690) Der Maler mit seiner Familie
True, depending on the context, this image is sometimes given the exact opposite meaning - "voluntary commitment to sin." No wonder that in the 15th century even the word "monkey" in Europe was used as a synonym for "dissolute woman", and the animals themselves became a traditional accessory of Italian courtesans. Kings and dukes gave monkeys to their favorites - a souvenir not without subtext!
The image of a monkey as the embodiment of the sin of lust, sensual licentiousness gained popularity in Dutch and Dutch painting of the 16th-17th centuries. Confirmation of this can be seen in the paintings of Peter Gerrits van Rooystraten ("The Dissolute Chefs", "The Proposal"): an unceremonious monkey looks under the skirt of a young woman.
Pieter Gerritsz Roestraten. The Sleeping Kitchen Maid, (c. 1665)
Peter Gerrits van Roystraten. Sentence
Brugghen, Hendrick Ter (1588-1629). Bacchante with an Ape, 1627 (oil on canvas 102.9x89.2 cm). J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Huysmans, Jacob (c.1633-96) (attr. to). John Wilmot (1647-80) 2nd Earl of Rochester (c.1665-70. Warwick Castle, Warwickshire)
In the portrait of the famous poet of the Restoration period, hero-lover, jester and theatrical patron, warrior and murderer, coward and syphilitic, or John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, who struggled with his passions all his life, the monkey is more than appropriate
Man has always suffered from inflated self-esteem, and the animals deified in the East frightened Europeans with their obvious resemblance to them. Which is not surprising, since we belong to the same order of mammals! But this little fidgety creature also behaves like a parody of a person: he makes faces and mimics masterfully. In Europe (unlike in the East), no one has ever thought of a comparison: you are smart as a monkey or you are beautiful. Instead, she was made the main character in caustic fables, an ugly caricature, the personification of human vices - such as stupidity, vanity, greed and laziness, plus also coquetry, curiosity, frivolity and talkativeness, when it comes to a woman.
What about an artist? Monkey's ability to mimic, starting from the Middle Ages, gave reason to make it a kind of symbol of painting and sculpture. The fact is that the art of the artist has long been perceived as the skill of copying the surrounding world. The Latin aphorism "Ars simia naturae" ("Art is the ape of nature") especially appealed to the artists of the 17th century.
Teniers David the Younger (1610-1690) Monkey Painter (1660, Prado Museum, Madrid)
Follower of Ferdinand van Kessel (1648-1696) Le singe peintre
In anthropomorphic subjects, the artists saw a safe opportunity to make fun of a person. And in political satire, animals, and the monkey, in particular, began to play a prominent role.
Brueghel, Jan the Younger (1601-78). A Satire of the Folly of Tulip Mania
College of Animals (School of Animals) (Dallas Museum of Art, Texas)
Cornelis Saftleven (1607, Gorinchem - 1681, Rotterdam)A satire on the trial of Johan van Oldenbarneveldt (1663, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Cornelis Saftleven (1607, Gorinchem - 1681, Rotterdam)An Enchanted Cellar with Animals (1663, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
The monkey became the alter ego of man, the embodiment of his worst sinful qualities and, at best, his innocent weaknesses. Flemish masters in the 17th century even created a special genre of so-called "monkey feasts" (Simmenfeest). Among its origins was Jan Brueghel the Elder (Velvet). Frans Franken worked a lot with the plot in question
Frans Franken the Younger. Monkeys play backgammon
and David Teniers the Younger. For example, in the painting "Monkeys in the Kitchen", as in a satirical cast from people's lives, a clear hierarchical ladder is visible. The ringleader sits on a stool, towering over his fellow tribesmen. The conspirators lurked behind him. All of them are somehow completely human!
Teniers David the Younger (1610-1690). Monkeys in the kitchen (p. 1645, Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
Kessel, Ferdinand van (1648-96). A monkey smoking and drinking with an owl (c 1685)
Kessel, Ferdinand van (1648-96). A Tavern Interior with Monkeys drinking and smoking
Teniers, Abraham (1629-70). The Smoking Room with Monkeys (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
Teniers, Abraham (1629-70). Barber's shop with Monkeys and Cats (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria)
The vanity of the monkey has also become notorious, especially in the context of a skeptical attitude towards the human desire to know everything. The painting by an unknown artist of the Flemish school "Connoisseurs in a room with pictures" (1620) depicts a fictitious private gallery. Wealthy buyers carefully examine the paintings. But where and why did the monkey appear in the window? The monkey is a symbol of the stupidity of human efforts, the futility of striving for earthly knowledge: instead of idly looking at curiosities, people should spend their time in prayer and preparing for eternal life, the author believes.
FRANCKEN Frans II. Antique Dealers Gallery
Since the Renaissance, with the advent of fashion for the allegory of the five senses in humanistic circles, the monkey often acted as an attribute of ... taste!
Jan Brueghel the Elder: Allegory of the Five Senses (figures of Hendrik I van Balen) (1617-18)
By the end of the 18th century, with the approval of the majestic academic style in painting, the fashion for paintings with humanized monkeys had passed.
Anton Nesterov. Fragment of the article "My age, my beast ...", or about symbolic thinking and animalistic codes in connection with portraits of the 16th - 17th centuries.
A monkey
Hanuman, Monkey God Playing with the Peaches of Immortality (from a Chinese dish)
The symbolism of the monkey is controversial. Most often, the monkey personifies sin, in particular physical. She is also a symbol of cunning, deceit, the pursuit of luxury, spitefulness, laziness (due to her angular movements), drunkenness, sometimes a symbol of learning. The monkey (along with the white elephant and the cow) is the third sacred animal in India. Even now, insulting a monkey by action causes great resentment among religious people. In Japan, the cry of a monkey is a symbol of deep longing. Carvings of three monkeys are considered in the East as a talisman protecting from slander.
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From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (AP) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (CI) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (SF) of the author TSBSphinx (monkey of the genus of baboons) Sphinx, Guinean baboon (Papio papio), narrow-nosed monkey of the genus of baboons. Body length 65-70 cm, tail 50-55 cm. The coat is reddish-brown, thick and long, in males it is especially long on the shoulders and forms a mantle. Face, ears, hands and feet are black,
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (SI) of the author TSB From the book Encyclopedia of Symbols author Roshal Victoria MikhailovnaMonkey Hanuman, the monkey god playing with the peaches of immortality (from a Chinese dish) The symbolism of the monkey is contradictory. Most often, the monkey personifies sin, in particular physical. She is also a symbol of cunning, deceit, striving for luxury, spitefulness, laziness (due to
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The attitude towards monkeys as a symbol is ambiguous and largely depends on belonging to Eastern or Western culture.
European fears
In the Christian world, the animal represents human vices, as it is associated with carnival, buffoonery and acting. In French tradition, the monkey is associated with love. In English and German, there are phrases with the mention of primates, denoting a drunk person.
Asian delight
Eastern peoples identify the animal with lightning speed, dexterity, and caution. In India, Egypt, the monkey represents courage, selflessness and dexterity. In ancient Mexico, the animal symbolically represented the wind. In Egypt, the baboon is the personification of wisdom.
In ancient China, the gibbon was a symbol of motherly love. The Japanese still believe that the monkey symbol protects children. In Mexico, animals are worshiped as the embodiment of their dead ancestors. The Chinese art of feng shui home improvement defines the monkey symbol as protection from bad luck and cunning.
iconic meat
It is believed that monkeys are very. They have a large brain - a recognized delicacy in Africa, China, South Asia. According to the eaters with animal meat, wisdom, a sense of humor, wit, and a wonderful memory are transmitted.
Ancient Chinese mythology conveys the ability to run fast with the meat of a great monkey. One of the Japanese fairy tales tells that the illness of the wife of the underwater king was treated with monkey liver.
Religious cults
The deification of primates is expressed in the image of the gods in their guise. The river deity Wuzhiqi in ancient China had the body of an animal. In Buddhism, the monkey is an early incarnation of the Buddha, but it can also represent ugliness, deceit, greed, insatiability in satisfying sensual desires.
In Hinduism, Rama's companion is the monkey-like god Hanuman (having a broken jaw), who is endowed with great strength and ability to fly, change size and appearance. The god of thunderstorm Indra (Slavic Perun) broke his jaw, throwing a spear. Being the son of the wind god Vayu, Hanuman symbolizes the gift of healing, fertility.
In India, there are still temples where monkeys live as a sacred animal. The macaques that flooded the states of India, causing a lot of trouble to people, nevertheless, they remain inviolable for the locals.
Three controllers
A composition of three monkeys is widely known, covering their eyes, ears and mouth with their paws - not to see, not to hear, not to talk about evil. Presumably, these images came from Japanese beliefs in three entities that live in every person.
They observe the actions of the owner and twice a month during sleep they report to the Lord of Heaven about the evil done. In order to avoid heavenly punishment for unseemly deeds during the "reporting periods", the followers of the faith spend night vigils, refusing to sleep. The symbol of three monkeys protects the owner from slander and slander.
Humans from monkeys and vice versa
Legends of different nations claim that monkeys are people who once went wild. Similar myths are alive among the Indians of Central America and among the natives of Southeast Africa. The mythology of the ancient Greeks mentions the island of Pitecus (monkeys), whose population, the Kerkop tribe, was turned into animals for constant lies.
In Tibet and South China, on the contrary, they proudly recognize the origin of their kind from animals. This is probably due to the totem nature of ancient symbols, just as the tribes in Russia were identified with the bear, elk and other representatives of the fauna.
In Buddhism, the sacred monkey, from which the Tibetans descended, is the incarnation of the saint (bodhisattva) Avalokiteshvara. Each Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual father of the locals, is considered the earthly incarnation of this deity.
Art and nature
The Middle Ages recognized the image of a monkey as an allegory of fine art, since they considered the creativity of people only an imitation of the creativity of Nature. Monkeys paved the way into space for people, having previously flown around the earth from America. Until now, medical experiments have been carried out on animals, using the physiological and psychological similarities with humans.
Monkeys are kept as pets, which in some cases serve as service animals for the disabled. In tourism and farming, primates often act as pests that cause significant damage to business profitability and people's property.
Text correspondence is very popular among young people. What can we say, almost any social network has internal mail. With it, you can not only type messages, but also attach images, music or even videos. Mail functionality depends on the resource you are on. An excellent example of messengers is Skype or Viber. These two apps are available for both PC and mobile devices.
The purpose of emoticons
Whatever the text correspondence, it deprives users of one thing - the exact expression of emotions. Of course, you can endlessly use punctuation marks or words with a bright emotional coloring, but it will not work exactly to convey your feelings or joy to your interlocutor. That's what emoticons were invented for. Initially, they were made up of simple printed characters such as colons and brackets, and then they were banal yellow faces, on which this or that emotion was depicted.
Now the emoticon has found its expression in the system as a group of various images of people, animals, food, cars, signs or other that users can insert into text correspondence. Of course, there is no need to explain the meaning of simple "smiling", "crying" or "shouting" emoticons, but often we use this or that icon without even knowing what it means. But some emoticons have a certain meaning and even their own history.
For example, the "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon. Someone sees here just an image of an animal, while someone notices a secret subtext. Which? Let's figure it out together and find out, "monkey with closed eyes".
Varieties of emoticons
In the emoji system, you can find many different emoticons. These are classic yellow cartoon faces, various vehicles with which we can talk about interesting travels, or food emoticons. There are so many of the latter that you can even transfer entire recipes with them. Small pictograms are designed not only to show emotions or share interesting news. Psychologists say that information saturated with such pictures is better remembered and deposited in a person’s memory. The principle is the same as with children's books, which have many illustrations. The child associates the necessary information with the image and remembers it more easily. So if you want someone to remember to go to the store, walk the dog or, for example, water the flowers, remind him of this in a message with the appropriate emoticon.
Smilies-animals
Animal emoticons represent a separate category. They are needed not only to show the interlocutor the image of the beast. Each animal expresses a certain mood. So, with the help of a "dog" you can express devotion, with the help of a "fox" - cunning, and with the help of a "snail" - slowness. But many of us had to notice three icons depicting monkeys that stand in a row. Why exactly monkeys, and what is the point here? What does the "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon and its "comrades" mean? Read on.
The meaning of "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon
In order to understand the meaning of this emoticon, you need to delve into history. Three smiley monkeys are located together for a reason. Three monkeys, one of which closes his eyes, the other - his ears, and the third - his mouth, symbolize the ancient Buddhist idea. The teaching tells us that we should not commit evil, and was common in ancient India, Japan and China. Primates are instructed to "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil." Many people have repeatedly wondered: why monkeys? Historians say that these animals were used as an image of the idea of non-evil, because a funny play on words takes place in the Japanese language. "I do not see, I do not hear, I do not speak" in Japanese means "mizaru, ivazaru, kikazaru". And the word "monkey" is translated as "dzaru". Perhaps the ancient Buddhists invested in the image of monkeys and a different meaning, but you and I can only guess about this. And when we already understand what "monkey with closed eyes" (smiley) means, we can discuss how to apply it in correspondence. By the way, in different applications, monkey emoticons may look a little different.
When to Use "Monkey Eyes Closed" Emoji
A cute primate, covering its eyes, promises us "not to see evil." Therefore, the direct purpose of such an icon is to show the interlocutor that what he says or shows you is bad. For example, he tells you a story where you condemn someone or directly him. Perhaps he sent you an image or some material that depicts what you consider "evil" or disgusting.
When to use "monkey eyes closed" emoticon yet? You can show the person with whom you are talking that you absolutely do not like the course of your dialogue. That you simply do not want to see, read and endure what he writes to you.
Another way to apply an emoji is to show that you are hiding from something or have already hidden. Like, they show you something or want something from you, and you, as they said in childhood, are "in the house."
Monkeys on Skype
We figured out what the "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon means. Interestingly, there are several more varieties of such emoticons in the Skype program. A monkey wearing Chinese clothes can symbolize the year of the Monkey in the eastern calendar. There is also a small primate that lies in the snow. You can send to the interlocutor, for example, when the first snow falls, and you are very happy about this. There is also a smiley with the image of a dancing monkey in Skype. It is the most versatile. So you can show that you are so happy that you are ready to start dancing. Some users call it the "victory dance". For example, you can send an emoticon when something worked out for you or what you thought came true.
Finally
I would like to note that if you are tired of the built-in "emoji", then there are a lot of applications and add-ons for a computer or gadget that allow you to use other emoticons.
Now you know what the "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon means. Use it wisely.
.. A monkey. In symbolism feng shui (Chinese art of home improvement) the monkey stands for cunning and protection from bad luck.
In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that those who tasted the meat of a large, human-like monkey acquired the ability to run quickly (“The Book of Mountains and Seas”, section “Nanshan Jing”).
It remains unclear the connection of the monkey with water, depicted, for example, in a Japanese folk tale that only a monkey's liver could cure the wife of the underwater king of dragons.
Many deities were depicted in the form of monkeys. So, with the body of a monkey was the ancient Chinese river deity Uzhzhitsi. Here, too, the connection of the monkey with water is traced.
The Bui people have a myth about two brothers left after the flood, who married monkeys and thus gave the continuation of the human race. Opinions about our hypothetical ancestor are quite sharply and clearly divided along the mental line East ¬ West. In the countries of the East, especially in Egypt, India and China, the monkey symbolizes wisdom, courage, dexterity and selflessness. Another thing is the West, where the monkey has become the main character in caustic fables and an ugly caricature of man.
For Europeans, the monkey personifies such vicious human qualities as stupidity, vanity, imbalance, greed, laziness and lust, and in relation to a woman, also cutesy coquetry, importunate curiosity, frivolity and talkativeness.
The reason for such a negative attitude of a European to a monkey, a fidgety and shrill creature from a world far away and alien to him, is not difficult to understand. The funny antics and antics of a monkey imitating a person are often perceived as an evil parody of Hero camoro.
However, the actions of the monkey lack meaningfulness, and all its attempts to compare with a man are completely in vain, this is “monkey labor”, ridiculed in fables.
In the mythology of the Indians and Chinese, divine monkeys often play the role of intelligent and dexterous repoeB. The greatest fame was gained by the Indian monkey god Hanuman, a brave warrior and faithful companion of the bora hero Rama. Hanuman is endowed with miraculous abilities: he flies through the air, changes his appearance and size, and the power of ero is such that it allows him to pull ropes out of the ground. While still an unintelligent baby, Hanuman tried to cut through the sun, mistaking ero for an appetizing fruit, but Indra's furrows, protecting the heavenly body, threw his perun at nero and broke the monkey's jaw. Since then, ero has been nicknamed Hanuman, i.e. "having a broken jaw."
The Indians are very proud of their mythological repoM, and representatives of the Jaitwas tribe, living in the territory of the state of Rajasthan, in the northwest of India, even assured that they were descended from Hanuman, since their princes had a longer one than all other people, spine like a monkey's tail.
Oddly enough, but in many myths of different peoples it is stated that monkeys descended from people. So did the Indians of Central America, who expressed the idea that the monkeys were once a human tribe, and the inhabitants of South East Africa, who called them "the first people." As for the reasons for the transformation of some people into monkeys, opinions differ here. Some Indian myths tell of a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals defeated by people and pushed back into the dense forests. There, the cannibals became completely feral and eventually turned into monkeys. These myths resonate with the traditions of the African Bambuti and Efe tribes, saying that chimpanzees are an ancient tribe of people driven into dense forests by other tribes for their evil and inhospitable disposition.
In ancient Greek mythology, there is a mention of a tribe of kerkop who inhabited the island of Pithecus (lit. "monkey island") and were turned into monkeys by Zeus for their constant lies.
The South African Zulus saw the reason for the deradiation of people in their monstrous laziness. According to the Zulu myth, the people of the African tribe Amafen, completely lazy, stopped cultivating the land. Deciding to feed themselves at the expense of the labor of other people, they tied the handles of hoes that had become useless to them to their backs. Over time, these handles adhered to the body of the Amathens and turned into tails, their entire body was covered with hair, their foreheads hung down, and the Amathens turned into baboons.
According to many Christian missionaries who preached to the nerpas, their charges were absolutely sure that the monkeys could speak, but wisely kept quiet so that they would not be forced to work.
If we take all of the above at face value, then contrary to the generally accepted theory of evolution, it turns out that it is not man who evolved from a monkey, but quite the opposite! Numerous experiments conducted by scientists on anthropoid primates convincingly prove that no amount of training and education can help a monkey become a man. On the other hand, a person, cut off from civilized society for a long time, easily falls into a wild state, unless he has great willpower and amazing diligence. There are a great many examples in history of how a person isolated from civilization descended to the level of an animal.
In the religion of many peoples of the East, the monkey was revered as a sacred animal. In Egypt, the baboon was regarded as a symbol of wisdom, in China, the female ribbon personified maternal care, and in Japan, the toy monkey is still considered a child's amulet. However, the real expanse for monkeys in India. To this day, there are temples dedicated to them, where monkeys live carelessly on full government support. Despite the fact that rhesus macaques, literally flooding the states of India, cause serious damage to the country's agriculture, climb into houses, steal and spoil things, and sometimes even kidnap children, they nevertheless enjoy complete immunity, they cannot even be missed. Quite recently, a very curious incident occurred in India: some wicked macaque managed to steal a folder with secret documents from a guarded office of some high-ranking official.
In Tibetan Buddhism, the lbezyan has an even higher honor. There, the sacred monkey gave birth to six ancestors of the Tibetan people, after which she took and incarnated into a bodhisattva (holy) Avalokitesvara , who, in turn, each time is embodied in the next Dalai Lama, the spiritual father of the Tibetans.
In Christianity, such liberties are not allowed to the monkey, since the church branded it as the personification of vicious passions, as a symbol of idolatry and diabolical heresies.
In the visual arts, starting from the Middle Ages, the monkey has become an allerory of art itself, since artists allegedly only imitate what has already been created by nature. Depicting the artist as a monkey painting a female portrait, self-critical Flemish painters philosophically uttered: "Art is the monkey of nature!"
As for the monkey as such, it mostly "shone" in the caricature genre. In Christian painting, a monkey with apple in the teeth personified the fall
