Singerie
DEFINITION
French word for 'Monkey Trick', it was a satirical depiction of monkeys copying human behavior and was a popular subject among French Rococo painters. The French decorator Jean Berain the Elder is credited as reviving the depictions from the thirteenth century Egyptians. Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singerie <br><br>A scene in which monkeys are dressed in human clothes, and engaged in human activities. The French word for this is singe. There are precedents for this type of anthropomorphism in medieval manuscripts, and perhaps as far back as antiquity. Use of this term is usually reserved for a type of decorative painting associated with French Rococo. Jean Berain (French) and Claude Audran (French) originated the singerie as a genre at the beginning of the 18th century. Watteau also painted singeries.(pr. SAH-jə-ree)Also see bestiary, chinoiserie, and zoomorphic.