16th century, Europe, gallery, 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, Europe, 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, 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, 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, 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...
