This section of the York Minster Pilgrimage Window shows a funeral processional, but instead of people, the participants are apes. According to recent scholarship, the use of apes in the image was not considered profane, but rather emphasizes the position of the viewer: "As the ape, lacking human nature, still mimics humans, so must man, although lacking divinity, mimic the divine" (Hardwick, 297).

Further reading on apes in medieval imagery: H.W. Janson, Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (London: Warburg Institute, 1952) P. Hardwick, "The Monkeys' Funeral in the Pilgrimage Window, York Minster," Art History 23.2 (June 2000): 290-299.

creative commons - attribution (by)

Dolly Jørgensen