[1] The painting depicts two monkeys shackled to an iron ring beneath an archway.

The monkeys are red-capped mangabeys and, due to Antwerp's status as a port city, were probably taken from their natural habitat by animal traders.

Bruegel likely drew the symbol of two chained monkeys from Quattrocento Italian artist Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of the Magi.

Sullivan drew these conclusions based on observations that Two Monkeys exhibits a "fundamental resemblance" to another of Bruegel's paintings, Dull Gret (Mad Meg).

[4] Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate Wisława Szymborska wrote the poem "Two Monkeys by Bruegel" describing her reaction to the painting.