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Monkey Riding a Goat

1672–74
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The monkey riding a goat represents Aesop’s fable of "The War between the Birds and the Beasts." Some twenty sculptors worked on the thirty-nine fountains for the Labyrinth between 1672 and 1674. With more than three hundred lead figures, it stood as the largest ensemble of animal sculptures until the work of the nineteenth-century artist Antoine-Louis Barye.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Monkey Riding a Goat
  • Artist: Pierre Le Gros the Elder (French, 1629–1714)
  • Artist: Benoît Massou (French, Richelieu, Indre-et-Loire 1627–1684 Paris)
  • Date: 1672–74
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Painted lead
  • Dimensions: 39 3/8 × 46 7/16 × 15 3/4 in., 2204.6 lb. (100 × 118 × 40 cm, 1000 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (MV 7926)
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts