Portrait of a Jester looking through his fingers, circa 1548 The Phoebus FoundationWhile the fool is often associated with the Middle Ages, the figures role evolved a great deal in the centuries that followed. Now, an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris is celebrating the complex character, following the fools dance through art history.Titled Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics, the show features eight sections that examine the fool in different contextssuch as In the Beginning: The Fool and God, The Fool and Love, The Fool at Court and Fools in the Cityto teach visitors how the character changed with the times.La Collation, circa 1520 GrandPalaisRmn / Michel UrtadoThe figure of the fool walked off the margins of medieval manuscripts into the unholy courts of the Renaissance, then returned to the page as Hamlets Yorick, writes theWall Street Journals Dominic Green. Later, in the age of reason and democracy, the parodist of royal dignity became a mirror of the universal condition: Dostoevskys holy fool and Picassos grubby clowns; Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.Museumgoers can peruse more than 300 pieces of art from 90 European and American institutions. These items follow the fool across hundreds of years, beginning in the Middle Ages and ending in the 19th century.Such characters appear in architectural adornments, frescoes, tapestries, etchings, ceramics and ivory or carved-wood miniatures, or in chess sets as an alternative to the bishop, writesArtforums Charlotte Kent. Fools came from all social strata. One drawing has them falling from trees; an anonymous Netherlandish oil on panel shows fools hatching from eggs beneath an enormous chicken.Aristotle and Phyllis, Aquamanile, circa 1380 The Metropolitan Museum of ArtLater depictions often portray the fool as someone to relate to rather than someone to mock. As the Louvre explains on the exhibition website, the character became a figure with which artists identified, wondering: What if I were the fool?Many of the fools in the exhibition wear bright, colorful outfits and evoke a sense of levity. But many others dont fit this stereotype, appearing morose or burdened.In Jan Matejkos 1862 depiction ofStaczyk, a famous Polish court jester, the figure sits slumped over in a chair, having just discoveredpresumably indicated by papers on the tablethat the Polish city of Smolensk has been lost (1514) during war with Moscow, per Encyclopedia Britannica. Behind him, the rest of the court enjoys a ball.Staczyk, Jan Matejko, 1862 Varsovie, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie / Piotr LigierThe fool allows for a figurative representation of questions troubling society, Elisabeth Antoine-Knig, one of the exhibitions curators, tellsArtnetsThese days, most of us dont want to be called a fool. Still, the exhibitions curators think modern audiences have a lot to learn from the character. I feel that the figure of the fool, as it existed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is lacking today, in helping us face the crises we are experiencing, Antoine-Knig adds.Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics is on view at the Louvre in Paris through February 3, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Exhibitions, Exhibits, France, History, Medieval Ages, Painters, Painting, Renaissance, Sculpture