Psalter of Duc de Berry

The miniature known as the Fool is from the Duc de Berry’s Psalter.

One of the most fascinating miniatures in the Duc de Berry’s Psalter is the folio miniature representing The Fool and connected with the name of Jacquemart de Hesdin. This unusual picture illustrates the Psalm 53,5 ‘Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread?’. The fool is painted standing in a green field flanked by two trees, against a red-patterned background. His half naked figure, with a white cloth draped over his shoulders, is twisted in the form of an ’S’. In his right hand he holds a court jester’s bladder, with his left he raises a yellow round of bread to his mouth. A sense of calm and great peacefulness emanates from his whole figure. Jacquemart painted this miniature early on in his career, and it may have been modelled on one of the illuminations Pucelle made for the Breviary of Jeanne d’Evreux.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Vivaldi: Sonata in D minor RV 62 op. 1 No. 12 (La Follia)