As the Latin poet Horace wrote in the 1st century BCE, “sometimes it is good to forget wisdom”. So don’t hesitate to take a trip to the Louvre to lose your mind in one of the most beautiful exhibitions offered by the Parisian museum in recent years: the role of madmen in Western art and culture, from the 13th to the 19th century. .
King’s jesters and mad kings
In a labyrinthine route (the Louvre now has a new space for its temporary exhibitions), 300 works (illuminations, engravings, tapestries, paintings, sculptures), retrace the crazy epic of these “insane”. “Fools of God”hysterical monarchs (such as Charles VI), “tormented” romantics of the 19th century, jesters of the European courts of the Renaissance (we never tire of the hilarious portraits of Coquinet at the court of Orléans, of Brittany then of Burgundy, of Triboulet with Duke René d’Anjou, or even of Kunz von der Rosen in Germany)…
Crazy loves
This exhibition is a mirror of madmen in which everyone can recognize themselves. But these are the “crazy in love” who triumph, in a thrilling section where lecherous and obscene characters reduce love to lust, where knights wear grotesque hoods with bells to seduce their sweethearts, while crowned heads lose their minds, such as Joan of Castile ( 1479 – 1555) who, after the death of her husband whom she loved passionately, lost her mind. The crazy pass away, but fortunately, thanks to art, the madness remains!
The exhibition “Figures du Fou” takes place from October 16, 2024 to February 3, 2025 at the Louvre, Paris.
-➤ Article published in the magazine GEO History n°79, “The thousand faces of slavery”, January-February 2025.
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