Pop quiz, hotshot. You’re the illuminator for Bodleian Library MS Douce 49, a late 13th-century Flemish Psalter.* You notice there’s a bit of spare room up above your historiated initial of the Passion of the Christ (pictured above). Mel Gibson won’t return your calls, and you’ve already burned your lifelines. What do you do? What do you do?
If you answered “Add a monkey riding a lion,” you are correct! (And probably a cheater.)
Nonetheles, enjoy your Passion of the Christ, now fortified with essential monkey.
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*True, you probably wouldn’t refer to it as “Bodleian Library MS Douce 49.” You’d probably call it, “The prayer book for Mr. ‘Oooh, that page isn’t gilt enough for me, I’m such a fancy pants noble'”. Assuming you hate the guy who commissioned it, of course.