Nar met kroon en fluit c. 1705 - 1713

Hendrik Pola etched this print called "Fool with crown and flute" sometime between the late 17th and early 18th century. The jester's costume, adorned with bells, and the fool's cap immediately mark him as a figure of satire and folly. Holding up the crown and flute, he mocks symbols of power and culture. Think of the medieval Feast of Fools, a raucous inversion of social order, where the low usurped the high. The image echoes through time. We find it again in Shakespearean dramas, where the fool holds a mirror to the king's vanity, revealing uncomfortable truths. Consider the psychological weight of the jester—a figure both amusing and unsettling. He embodies the subconscious desire to challenge authority, a role society permits him, perhaps, to purge itself of such impulses. The jester's image is not static. It shifts, evolves. Yet, it always returns, a reminder that beneath the veneer of order lies chaos, and within laughter, a hint of deeper wisdom.