4th century, Americas, ceramic, figurine, fooleum, Mexico, primary source
This striking hunchbacked dwarf from the Colima culture of western Mexico has been dated to 300-400 CE. While we can’t say ‘This is a jester’, we know that jesters could often be dwarfs and dwarfs often jesters, with or without a hunchback. We also...
4th century BCE, ceramic, Europe, figurine, fooleum, Greece, primary source
Some of the early antecedents of European jesters can be found in Greek and later Roman comic actors and mimes, some of whom would step out of the script and shoot their wit from the hip. This endearing group of terracotta comic actors from an Attic burial has been...
6th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, fooleum, primary source
This endearing character leapt out of his glass case to grab my attention the day we spent 4-5 hours cramming in as much as we could of the Art Institute of Chicago on a perhaps once-in-a-lifetime visit. It was the custom in ancient China to bury clay figurines in...
2nd millennium BCE, Egypt, Egyptian, fooleum, primary source
The earliest reference I have found to a possible court jester concerns a dwarf at the Egyptian court in the 3rd millennium BCE. It appears that dwarfs and pygmies were respected in ancient Egypt, and there is even a dwarf god, Bes.  More to follow on this as I am...
Americas, bibliography, book chapter, English, research, South America
Taubes’ paper brings to light fresh examples of Mayan figurines, including sketches that are easier to interpret than some of the original examples. It looks at the relatively cheap and popular medium of figurines, and some parallels between their subjects and...
