The quality of the carving of this group, and the luxurious inlay of ebony and mother-of-pearl eyes, may indicate a provenance from the Royal Court at Naples. The carving is not unlike the work on a console with mirror frame attributed to a member of the Fiore family at the Palazzo Reale, Caserta (Detroit, op.cit.).
The complex iconography of the present group suggests that it may have originally been one of a group of four representing the Continents. Alternatively, the presence of the monkey may be allegorical of evil, perhaps supplanting the more common serpent in an allegory of Adam and Eve.