
Creating the world's greatest visual gallery of fools and jesters
Jesters were often highly visible whether through a distinctive physique, comportment, costume, or some combination of these. This has perhaps contributed to a wealth of visual representations of them and the pool from which they often emerged, including dwarfs, musicians, entertainers and actors.
The Gallery will share images from a growing virtual fooleum, with a view to exploring – and enjoying – the ways in which fools were captured in paintings, etchings, wood-cuts, carvings and figurines.
Aims and approaches
We aim to feature as global and engaging a range of images as possible, together with references to related literature, in order to enrich our understanding of how jesters were perceived and portrayed. Once we have some critical mass, we will make this a searchable resource, as well as a feast for the eyes and mind.
As we adore alliteration (and top marks), we employ a triple-A formula:
Ambitious – does it contribute to making this the world’s most comprehensive visual array of fools and their like? We actively seek diversity across time, space and medium.
Available – does it exist? For example, a European fool-fad lasting centuries led to miles of materials, whereas in China visual depictions are thinner on the ground. This means the Gallery will likely have a stronger European flavour and fewer Chinese examples than we’d like.
Accessible – is it digitally and otherwise accessible? We begin with images in the public domain, or generously released for research or educational purposes. Luckily, many great museums are in full-throttle digitisation mode (applause, applause).
In sum, there is no better time to be alive if you are developing a world-spanning repository of fooldom on a shoestring. And by the time we’ve featured the affordable images, sponsors will be queueing up to lavish their largesse on other acquisitions.
Latest additions … served up as they emerge
The ploughman’s fool
This hand-coloured aquatint dates from 1813 and illustrates a custom connected with Plough Stots, a form of...
A capering fool
This lively 16th century tapestry includes a jester - capering or leaping - in full fool's outfit. In addition to the...
Sketch of a fool
This watercolour was done by Vigne who travelled with a Lohani caravan between Multan and Kabul in the 1830s. ...
Kenneth Craig – Proverb’s Progress
Kenneth Craig's excellent paper takes a sweeping look at examples of fool-peeping-through-fingers paintings and...
Every bathroom needs one
How about this for serendipity: strolling around the V&A, I couldn't believe my eyes when they spotted this...
Görel Cavalli-Björkman – The Laughing Jester
Cavalli-Björkman, at the time curator at the National Museum in Stockholm, wrote this paper when the museum acquired...
To cap it all
It is unlikely that historical jesters wore the stock costume of 'cap and bells' so visible in medieval and some later...
Five guys named Moe (VII) – Verbeeck fool
The last in this series of paintings (for now, I keep stumbling across new ones) bears a striking resemblance to our...
Five guys named Moe (VI) – Vogtherr fool
The latest in our series of fools peeping through their fingers, this one is a woodcut by Heinrich Vogtherr the...
Five guys named Moe (V) – Laughing fool
Another version of the peeping-through-fingers theme, this one closely resembling the second in our series, which...
Five guys named Moe (IV) – Laughing fool or jester
The peeking through fingers stance is enigmatic, this we know. This version of it, apparently a pretty...
Five guys named Moe (III) – Jester looking through his fingers
This version of the 'peeping through fingers' jester was attributed by Tietze-Conrat in her 1957 book to the artist...
Five guys named Moe (II) – Laughing Fool
The second in our peeping-through-fingers series is almost identical in stance and props to the anonymous 'Laughing...
Five guys named Moe (I) – Laughing Jester
The 'Laughing Jester' by an unknown Dutch artist is generally dated to around 1520. This work, which is the front...
Dongfang Shuo by Torei Hijikata
This is a personal favourite among many depictions available of Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 (c. 160 - c. 93 BCE), although it...
Photo of Lear’s fool
Something wonderfully quirky about this old photo of a Swedish actor, Ivar Nilsson, in the role of King Lear's...
A fool and a dwarf
This is one of two double portraits featuring Estanilao, a dwarf who served in the household of Cardinal Antoine...
Cardinal Granvelle’s Dwarf with a Dog – Antonis Mor
Europe stands out for the range and number of representations of fools and dwarfs in art, particularly during the late...
Large head of a jester
This intriguing German engraving (c. 1600) features a Large Head of a Jester and an inscription beneath. Wearing a...
The costume of the skomorokh
The skomorokh is a Russian term which spans entertainers, musicians, buffoons, jesters, harlequins, minstrels or...
Moote Ram the Dwarf
A curious drawing, from the late 18th century, of a named dwarf dancing in the presence of a pair of Indian soldiers...
A fool feigned or real?
This sketch of an individual, done by an Anglo-Indian artist around 1790, has the intriguing title of 'A fool named...
Dwarf at the Turkish court
There were many dwarfs and mutes at the Ottoman court, and so I was intrigued to find this painting of a dwarf from...
A dancing dwarf
A lively portrayal of a dancing dwarf, accompanied by a piper, this is from an album of 102 drawings, with the dwarf...
Chinese entertainer
This endearing character leapt out of his glass case to grab my attention the day we spent 4-5 hours cramming in as...
Edgar approaching Lear
This arresting drawing, by the Swiss artist Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli) (1741-1825), depicts Edgar feigning...
The Spanish Infanta and the dwarf Madalena
This painting depicts the Spanish Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), Archduchess of Austria, in an...
Portrait of Madalena Ruiz
The female dwarf Madalena Ruiz served at the Spanish court from 1565 for some forty years. See also the portrait of...








Design & content copyright: Beatrice Otto 2021 all rights reserved I header & related jester illustrations by joaomontenegro.com
Colours and fonts were chosen for aesthetic strength and because their names reflect the mission of foolsareeverywhere.com. Fonts: Quipley I Lustria I Wild Pen. Colours include: Jester Yellow by Faeriepuffs I New Laughter by Ilara ... you get the picture
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