But are you crazy? Oh yes! Everyone is crazy in the new exhibition at the Louvre Museum, entitled Figures of the Mad: from the Middle Ages to the Romantics, to be discovered from October 16, 2024 to February 3, 2025. A dive into the history of the madman and his representation in through the ages.
They were atypical stars during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, subversive artists that we found on paintings, on everyday objects, in books… The Louvre museum invites us to (re)discover the character of the madman, in a exposition unpublished event organized from October 16, 2024 to February 3, 2025.
From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the madman did not suffer from mental illness: he was a character created for have fun the court and the people. An entertainer whose goal is to make the audience laugh and entertain with “antics”… But that’s not all! Erotic, tragic, violent, parodic or scatological spectacles, the madman also uses his art to warn, mock, denounce or overthrow the established order. The madman breaks society’s codes of decency by representing its excesses.
The exhibition Figures of the fool brings together more than 300 works exceptional, ranging from the 13th to the 16th century. Thanks to paintings, engravings, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, precious or everyday objects, the character of the madman is revealed in all his richness and complexity. The Louvre Museum offers us through this exhibition a broad panorama of the art of Northern Europe.
The madman appears in the Middle Ages, first in thereligious universe. The fool is the one who rejects God, a character from the world of fables and proverbs who appears on the margins of society. This character can be incarnated in many ways: he infects men and women, young and old when he gets involved in love. There love passion turns into madness, causing the destruction of men, leading to lust, then death… The madman is not in half measures.
The madman gradually established himself at the royal court, under a figure still known today. He is theentertainer of the noblesperforming games and acrobatics during the holidays, placing himself in opposition to the wise monarch through his extravagant behavior. This subversive character imposes itself on everyday objects: it becomes an element of chess games, a figure of card games (which we today call the joker)…
Fools are not confined within the walls of the palace: in the cities, they are found at times of celebration and carnivalsin colorful costumes, wearing donkey ears or a rooster’s comb. He dances and sings, mocking the spectators, and sowing doubt: who, him or those who watch him, are the real madmen…?
This “praise” of madness gradually disappeared during the era of Lightswhen Reason imposes itself and the figure of the philosophical thinker grows. This marginal symbolizing disorder and anarchy is then relegated to the past.
The madman resurfaces a few centuries later, at the beginning of the 19th century. L’romantic artthe birth of the psychiatry and the artists’ experiments with the unconscious and the bizarre bring this character back to life. However, the madman no longer has his place as a public entertainer: from now on, he is a tortured, mysterious character, alternately frightened or frightening.
And a centerpiece exhibited here: Extracting the Stone of Madnessof Jerome Boschmocking the ignorance of contemporaries and “specialists” on questions of madness and illness. Here, the madman is seen as an innocent, facing a dishonest and ignorant “doctor”, preaching his parish, and wearing a funnel on his head. Who is the madman? Who isn’t? It’s up to you to form your own opinion on the matter. With this unique exhibition, the Louvre museum immerses us in a fascinating world, to be discovered in fall 2024.
Related News :