Fools as Artists in Modern Europe: Jesters, Dwarves and the Aesthetics of Monstrosity – FAME

Jesters, fools and dwarfs are exceptional beings. Acceptable monsters and figures of marginality in modern Europe, they are also figures of artistic skill and performance. These men and women dance, write, show wit and humour. At the same time, artists portrayed them in paintings, engravings and sculptures, their humour was imitated and they even took up the pen to create a real literature of buffoonery. Their presence at Court is a European phenomenon that marks modernity, as jesters travel from one country to another until the end of the Ancient Regime. This project aims to make a European history of jesters by studying them as artists excluded from the noble arts as well as from our classical heritage. In this way, this study aims to question our aesthetic categories and allows us to build an inclusive history of European culture, by considering in a new way the relations between artistic competence, social distinction and disability.