Figures Du Fou Du Moyen Âge Aux Romantiques

Exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 16 October 2024 - 3 February 2025

"The number of fools is infinite" (Ecclesiastes 1:15)

In the beginning was the 'fool', a poor fool devoid of wisdom who turned away from God. Relegated to the margins, he left the religious sphere during the Middle Ages to flourish in the secular world, becoming in turn the one who entertains, warns, denounces, reverses values and even overturns the established order.

Recognisable by its emblematic attributes - a bonnet with donkey's ears or a cock's crest, bells, marotte, a colourful costume - this figure evolved over the centuries and took on many incarnations: court jesters, fools of love and jesters invaded the whole of Western art.

From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and right up to the modern era, this exhibition catalogue brings together nearly 350 works that are as diverse as the characters they portray: illuminated manuscripts, printed books, engravings, tapestries, sculptures, precious or everyday objects and paintings by illustrious artists such as Bosch, Bruegel, Géricault, Courbet...

Under the expert eye of leading specialists, this book invites us to reflect on what the norm retains and what it rejects, and proposes a reconsideration of a number of major aspects of the history and history of art, in the light of this figure that crystallises anxieties and passions. A plunge into a world of madness that takes us back to ourselves and our relationship with the Other.