Between order and transgression, social criticism and fascination for the strange, the image of madness in art modifies the gaze on marginality. From the Middle Ages to romanticism, from the feast of crazy to confinement, the representations reflect as many looks on the fool.
Elisabeth Antoine-Königformer student of the École normale supérieure and specialist in the arts at the Gothic period, was for ten years conservative at the Musée de Cluny, where she made the garden of medieval inspiration. General Conservative at the Department of Items of the Louvre Museum, she is co-commissioner of the exhibition Figures du Fou (with Pierre-Yves Le Pogam). She co-directed the book Gothic goldsmith in Europe (Viella, 2016) and is co-author of monographs Cross descent (Louvre/Somogy, 2013) and The Last Judgment in a prayer: devotion microsculptures (Louvre/El Viso, 2021).
At the Louvre museum, the exhibition Figures du Fou. From the Middle Ages to the romantics addresses the theme of madness from the angle of representations, from the end of the Middle Ages to romanticism. In fact, through more than 300 works-not only pictorial, but also relating to sculpture, art objects, illuminated books …-the artistic history of madness reveals several very distinct approaches, as the exhibition commissioner underlines, Élisabeth Antoine-König.
Shooting & editing: Ariel Suhamy.
In the Middle Ages, the reverse of the order
Approached from religious thinking and ecclesial order, the madman corresponds to the Middle Ages “ Those who are the opposite of wisdom »: The insane of Psalm 52 which affirms his unbelief, or the madman staged during the mad holidays, organized annually between the Nativity and the Epiphany. Particularly striking, the medieval legend of Aristotle’s passion for Phyllis is the subject of different representations, including an exposed aquamanile, representing the philosopher on all fours, ride by the young woman.
Medieval madmen are also the courtyard, which from the XIIIe century occupy an entertainment function covering two categories: “ natural crazy, which are the simple minds ” And “ Artificial crazy, for whom it is an art of making people laugh, of being renowned for its spirit features: humorists, actors, laughter professionals ». Beyond the known portraits of court crazy, Élisabeth Antoine-König highlights the exceptional nature of the crazy helmet sent by the Emperor Maximilien Ier To the King of England Henri VIIIand intended for festive contexts.
The madman of humanists and social criticism
Folie becomes central in Renaissance literature. The crazy nave de Sebastian Brant, from 1494, and thePraise of madness d’Erasme, in 1511, were the subject of richly illustrated editions which multiplied the figure of madness as an instrument of social criticism.
There are often certain pictorial representations, including the Jérôme Bosch panel traditionally entitled The crazy navealthough this fragment of a triptych probably dedicated to the denunciation of vices did not carry this title originally. Paradoxically, moreover, “ He is the character bearing the habit of the madman, wearing a bell with bells and a marotte, which appears on this wise nave of the lot. Perched in a corner, he drinks his cut but looks detached, and also turns his back on this assembly of debauched. »»
Mad romantic and crazy confinement
While Michel Foucault sees in the classical age the rocking point towards the expulsion of the madness of the social order and that of reason, the representations tend to disappear, testifying rather of a disaffection for the figure of the madman, which can be linked to religious reforms and the abandonment of the festivals of madmen and other festive traditions. The end of XVIIIe century, on the other hand, sees madness in art reappear. The theme thus participates in a taste for the strange and the dreamlike, which extends in the exhibition with the great figures of romantic crazy people inspired by history (Charles ViJeanne de Castille) or who deploy in literature and on stage (Quasimodo, Rigoletto).
However, representations are also based on the rise of the psychiatric universe and the confinement of crazy people, as already shows The Enclosure of Fouscanvas painted by Goya in 1793-1794, inspired by the hospital in Zaragoza: Representation “ terrible “, Close to the prison world,” With his prisoners piled up, half naked, in a sort of hellish vision ».
