23/12/2025
So here’s the full story 👇📜
In the early Renaissance, the fool was not just a clown.
In European courts, the fool was often the only figure allowed to mock kings, clergy, and scholars alike — saying what others could not.
In art, the fool became something deeper.
A mirror of human blindness, pride, and the ease with which ignorance disguises itself as wisdom.
In The Laughing Fool by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, this idea takes shape.
The man laughs loudly while trying to hide his face, peering through his fingers as if choosing what not to see.
His jester’s hat with donkey ears marks him as a fool — a figure who pretends to be foolish in order to expose real foolishness.
On his shoulder rests a marotte, a small staff topped with his own face — a doubled self, often associated with vanity and madness.
In his hand, he holds eyeglasses with no lenses. In the 16th century, such empty glasses were a common visual joke, mocking false scholars who appeared learned but understood nothing.
He looks, but does not see.
He laughs — not at himself, but at those who believe they see clearly while remaining blind.
Because in the end, the fool does not pretend to be wise.
We do.
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