16th century, drawing, Europe, fooleum, Latin, Netherlands, primary source
​This pen and ink sketch in the margins of an early copy of Erasmus’ Praise of Folly is one of 82 done by Hans Holbein (1497/98-1543) and his elder brother Ambrosius. In this drawing, the self-appointed goddess Folly, having given a sermon of brazen...
16th century, Europe, fooleum, Germany, Netherlands, painting, primary source, woodcut
Having posted individual notes on an enigmatic series of similar paintings, it feels time to pull them together in one place, also allowing the various finger-peeping fools to be viewed alongside each other. We will soon add some related prints and in the meantime,...
20th century, drawing, Europe, fictive fool, fooleum, Netherlands, primary source
This eye-catching drawing is by Leo Schatz, a Dutch artist who was a member of the resistance during the Second World War in the Netherlands. In trying to understand what might have prompted this curious untitled sketch, featuring two men in profile with elongated...
16th century, Europe, fooleum, Netherlands, primary source, tapestry
This lively 16th century tapestry includes a jester – capering or leaping – in full fool’s outfit. In addition to the cap and bells, he has bells around the bottom of his tunic and in leg bands like a Morris dancer. He is also waving a marotte...
16th century, 17th century, bibliography, book chapter, engraving, Europe, fooleum, Germany, Netherlands, painting, print, research, woodcut
Kenneth Craig’s excellent paper takes a sweeping look at examples of fool-peeping-through-fingers paintings and prints, as presented in our Five Guys Named Moe series. Like Cavalli-Björkman’s earlier paper, but more comprehensively, it discusses the...
16th century, bibliography, Europe, fooleum, journal paper, Netherlands, painting, research
Cavalli-Björkman, at the time curator at the National Museum in Stockholm, wrote this paper when the museum acquired the ‘Laughing Jester’, the first in our ‘Five Guys Named Moe’ series of fool-peeping-through-fingers paintings, this one also...
16th century, Europe, fictive fool, fooleum, 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, fooleum, 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...
