This work is part of the series of six panels of monkey scenes in the Museo Nacional del Prado (from P01805 to P01810). The subject matter has been associated with human foolishness since the Middle Ages and is drawn from the oeuvre of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Peter van der Borcht. Teniers successfully captures the ambivalence of mankind in its animal nature.

The teacher is punishing one of its pupils before the fearful gaze of the whole class. Terror overtakes the student who waits its turn on its knees. The same fear is expressed by the monkeys in the background of the semi-dark room. The books, notebooks and inkwells set the scene of the classroom’s interior. The drawing on the front left wall shows a face in three-quarter profile with features that resemble Brouwer’s models.

Díaz Padrón, Matías, El siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado: catálogo razonado, Barcelona, Prensa Ibérica, 1996, p.1392