Roundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle Table

Roundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle Table

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Whether this scene was intended to convey anything beyond its obvious whimsy is uncertain. Fables and moralities abounded throughout the Middle Ages, satirizing those who attempted functions for which they were totally unsuited, as, for example, an illiterate working as a librarian. Here, the composition brings to mind alphabets by such artists as the Master E.S., in which the letters are formed by contorted figures or by the arrangement of everyday objects. With its seriflike corners, the tabletop resembles the letter I. Are the apes in the process of deconstructing an alphabet?

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle TableRoundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle TableRoundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle TableRoundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle TableRoundel with Three Apes Building a Trestle Table

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.