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.

A group plays cards in the foreground, while four monkeys take delight in alcohol and tobacco in the background of the wine cellar. A cellar keeper fills a jug with wine and at the opposite end, another monkey raises a toast with its glass in the air. Without acrimony or drama, Teniers criticises the vices of gambling, wine and tobacco, with the same intent as the 16th-century engravings of Lucas van Leyden.

The concept of tenebrism prevails, and the candlelight, which casts a shadow over the interior, traces back to the methods of the Dutch school of genre painting.

Díaz Padrón, Matías, El siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado: catálogo razonado, Madrid, Prensa Ibérica, 1995, p.1390