Louvre to Open Major Exhibition on the Figure of the Fool

The Musée du Louvre in Paris will host a major exhibition titled "Figures du Fou. Du Moyen Âge aux romantiques" (Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics) from October 16, 2024, to February 3, 2025. Curated by Élisabeth Antoine-König, chief curator of the Decorative Arts Department, and Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, chief curator of the Sculpture Department, the show traces the evolution of the fool and madness in art from the medieval period through Romanticism. It features over 300 works—including sculptures, ivories, boxes, bronzes, medals, miniatures, drawings, engravings, paintings, tapestries, and everyday objects—from collections worldwide, with a focus on French, Flemish, German, and English art. The exhibition is supported by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in collaboration with the Phoebus Foundation. Early representations linked madness to spirituality, as seen in Giotto's depiction of St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Chivalric cycles portrayed folly as amorous torment, while the 14th century introduced the politicized court jester. Artists like Bosch and Bruegel made the fool ubiquitous around the turn of the Renaissance, coinciding with Erasmus's "In Praise of Folly." In the 19th century, madness took on tragic and cruel connotations amid political and artistic revolutions, shaping the modern understanding of the figure.