Wolfgang Hugo Rheinhold: Sculpture 'Monkey with skull' (1892-93), version in bronze

With the sculpture 'Monkey with Skull', the philosopher and sculptor Wolfgang Hugo Rheinhold (1853-1900) cast the debate surrounding Charles Darwin's work in an almost iconographic form. His contemporaries already attested to the fact that he delivered a 'cabinet piece of superior humour' with his manifold allusions - after all, not only Shakespeare's 'To be or not to be', but also Rodin's 'Thinker' and circulating Darwin caricatures clearly shimmer through. But Rheinhold's monkey is far more than just humour cast in bronze from his great-grandfather's time. After all, the monkey wielding a tool for measuring skulls is not only sitting on Darwin's ground-breaking work, but also on the Bible. And on closer inspection, the 'Inscriptio', the inscription, proves to be the key to the allegory: 'Eritis sicut deus' it says, 'You will be like God'. With these very words, the devil lures Adam and Eve to the tree of knowledge, which, as we know, leads to their expulsion from paradise. In the end, the sculptor Rheinhold proves himself to be a philosopher again: those who seek knowledge, the 'monkey with a skull' tells us, must reckon with consequences - one, if not 'the' fundamental experience of the 20th century, from the atomic bomb to genetic engineering.sculpture in fine bronze, cast using the lost wax technique, partially patinated, polished and gilded by hand. On a black diabase base. Size 17 x 26 x 17 cm (W/H/D), weight approx. 5 kg. Limited to 980 pieces, numbered. With certificate.