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The statue show a tailless barbary ape. With her long arms she originally clutched two baby apes to her shoulder. The arm and leg of the missing second baby can still be seen dangling along her left side.
This bronze and three other bronze apes now on a fountain in the Boboli Gardens, Florence are linked to a 1596 commissions for a marble fountain in the garden of the Villa Miralfiore in Pesaro. From 1595 Mariani spent two years in Pesaro, and completed the commission from Francesco Maria II della Rovere, duke of Urbino, in 1596.
Menageries of domestic and exotic animals were often kept at Renaissance courts, and one in or near Urbino may have provided inspiration for this subject as well as models for the artist.
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