David Teniers the Younger is famous not only for the greatest painting flex of all time, but also for doing something that only the most magnanimous of celebrities would even consider: he became a teacher.

After a very successful career as a court painter for a multitude of royal courts, David founded not just one, but two art schools, Brussels Academy of Fine Arts in 1663 and the Academy in Antwerp in 1665. While some readers might roll their eyes a bit at the idea of the world being a better place because of a preppy art school, it should be noted that in the 17th century, being an artist was not actually as unfeasible a career as one might think. Remember, this is just before the Baroque period, an artistic era defined by the church ordering mass amounts of religious art works, and famous artists filling those requests through the use of their apprentices, much like Donatello did for his master. 

This painting was done around the same time, in 1660, providing an interesting insight into the artist’s perspectives on education. While pretty much everyone knows that corporal punishment was once a regularly used tool in the educators' tool belt. According to Cotton Mathers, Puritan minister from New England born during this time, physical punishment should only be meted out for using obscenities or some other particularly terrible deed. If even the Puritans thought hitting your students was extreme, we can see that David, by painting his students as monkeys in the need of a beating, was more than likely a strict tutor.

Obviously his teaching methods were not entirely unsuccessful, as the Antwerp Academy still exists and is still one of the most prestigious art schools in the world, though we can't say for sure this is due to 17th century spankings. Interestingly enough, the Academy still has a problem with its rather stringent teaching principles. In 2018, a student attending the school died by suicide as a result of the relentless pressures put upon him in the notoriously rigorous fashion program. The horrible event caused the school to reconsider some of their existing policies, and to offer more support to their remaining students.