16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, Netherlands, painting, primary source
The last in this series of paintings (for now, I keep stumbling across new ones) bears a striking resemblance to our mysterious Moe No. 4. This one, too, I found on an auction site. Said to be the work of the Master of 1537, who worked in Mechelen and whose name...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, German, Germany, primary source, woodcut
The latest in our series of fools peeping through their fingers, this one is a woodcut by Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger (1513-68), dated to around 1540 and so slightly later than the preceding paintings on the same theme.  He has the cap and bells complete with ass...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, painting, primary source
Another version of the peeping-through-fingers theme, this one closely resembling the second in our series, which we’ll call the Wellesley fool. It was sold by Christie’s in 2017 and they attributed it to a follower of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, Netherlands, painting, primary source
The peeking through fingers stance is enigmatic, this we know. This version of it, apparently a pretty straightforward twin of the second in our series, if not a copy, is elusive. By chance I saw it on an online art mart. It has now disappeared and I know of no...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, Netherlands, painting, primary source
This version of the ‘peeping through fingers’ jester was attributed by Tietze-Conrat in her 1957 book to the artist Pieter Huys (c. 1519-81), although the art historian Cavalli-Björkman has questioned this and further moots the possibility that this...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, gallery, Netherlands, painting, primary source
The second in our peeping-through-fingers series is almost identical in stance and props to the anonymous ‘Laughing Jester’ recently featured, including the coxcomb-ass-ear-cap, the glasses half-revealed, and the marotte or fool-stick. In this case the...
fictive fool, folk fool, Ireland, Irish, primary source, quotes, stories
Meet Mael and Mlithe and Admlithe in an astonishing description of three jesters in the ‘Room of the Mimes’, from an Irish mythological cycle. Note that it is impossible not to laugh when you seen them regardless of your state of mind, and that the king...
Arabic, fictive fool, Middle East, primary source, quotes, stories
One method of admonishing a king is to offer him the title of fool, a verbal equivalent of making him change places with his jester. Here is an Arabic version of this regular formula:A list of fools was drawn up by a man from Damascus with the sultan’s name at...
