The gate of the year

Print of the XVI century representing a Dance of Fools (Stultorum Chorea), produced in The Netherlands and now in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, USA.
A central figure, crossing all through the medieval imaginary, is that of the Fool, who, for many aspects, is similar to that of the Wild Man. Both show therianthropic elements, and their attributes (the Fool’s marotte and the Wild Man’s stick) are sometimes interchangeable. Their functions, too, are in part overlapping, like that of bringer and promoter of fertility. But the Fool knows also what reason does not know, he possess the power of foresight and is placed thus in a condition of otherness compared to the average man, in the same way as the Wild Man is placed at the borders of the human world, in contiguity with both the animal and the plant worlds. In Western Middle Ages. “the folly indicates the hand, the choice of God. The insane sees what the others cannot see; he is able to foretell the future and knows beforehand the destiny of men” (Heers 1983, p.142).

[Image: http://art-links.livejournal.com/1657884.html?thread=8668700]




Folly

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Print of the XVI century representing a Dance of Fools (Stultorum Chorea), produced in The Netherlands and now in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, USA. A central figure, crossing all through the medieval imaginary, is that of the Fool, who, for many aspects, is similar to that of the Wild Man. Both show therianthropic elements, and their attributes (the Fool’s marotte and the Wild Man’s stick) are sometimes interchangeable. Their functions, too, are in part overlapping, like that of bringer and promoter of fertility. But the Fool knows also what reason does not know, he possess the power of foresight and is placed thus in a condition of otherness compared to the average man, in the same way as the Wild Man is placed at the borders of the human world, in contiguity with both the animal and the plant worlds. In Western Middle Ages. “the folly indicates the hand, the choice of God. The insane sees what the others cannot see; he is able to foretell the future and knows beforehand the destiny of men” (Heers 1983, p.142). [Image: http://art-links.livejournal.com/1657884.html?thread=8668700]