The Affe mit Schädel ("Ape with skull") is a famous work by the late-19th-century German sculptor Hugo Rheinhold. The statuette is otherwise known as the Affe, einen Schädel betrachtend ("Monkey viewing or contemplating a skull").

It has been said "What brings together Charles Darwin, The Bible, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet? Rheinhold's Monkey!” Meditation on a human skull is actually an old European cultural tradition that Rheinhold used in his masterful piece. In the graveyard scene in Shakespeare’s famous Hamlet, Hamlet held up the skull of Yorick. Shakespeare used ...

Darwins Ape Sculpture - Monkey Holding Skull (Affe mit Schadel, 1892-93). The small sculpture also know as Monkey with skull sculpture or also known as Philosophizing Monkey statue attracted a great deal of attention at the Berlin Art Exhibition in 1893.

The philosopher and sculptor Wolfgang Hugo Rheinhold (1853-1900) cast the debate about Charles Darwin's work in an almost iconographic form with his sculpture "Monkey with Skull". His contemporaries already attested that his diverse allusions were a "cabinet piece of superior humour" - after all, not only Shakespeare's "To be or not to be", but ...

Monkey Holding Skull (Affe mit Schadel, 1892-93) The original bronze sculpture Monkey with Skull or also known as Philosophizing Monkey attracted a great deal of attention at the Berlin Art Exhibition in 1893. It was Rheinhold's first sculpture as a professional sculptor and was an immediate commercial success. The Ber

Feb 3, 2010 · Inscribed on an open book at the base of the stack is the Latin phrase: "eritis sicut deus" from Genesis 3.5. The statue, Affe mit Schädel (ape with skull), was created by Wolfgang Hugo Rheinhold and first exhibited in 1893. From the excellent pamphlet Rheinhold's Philosophizing Monkey.pdf (via Wikipedia):

Monkey Holding Skull (Affe mit Schadel, 1892-93): The small, bronze sculpture 'Monkey with skull' or also known as 'Philosophizing Monkey' attracted a great deal of attention at the Berlin Art Exhibition in 1893. It was Rheinhold's first sculpture as a professional sculptor and was an immediate commercial success.

The sculpture depicts a chimpanzee sitting on a pile of books and looking at a human skull. It was created in 1892 and is Rheinhold’s most famous work. The "Ape with Skull" was first shown in 1893 at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition.