Madmen are everywhere. But are yesterday's fools today's fools? This Fall, the Louvre Museum is dedicating an exhibition to the many figures of the madman, who abound in the artistic universe between the 13th and 16th centuries. The crazy literally invades the entire artistic space and asserts himself as a fascinating, troubled and subversive figure in an age of ruptures, not so distant from our own. If the madman makes people laugh and brings with him a universe full of antics, erotic, scatological, tragic and violent dimensions also appear. Capable of the best and the worst, the fool is in turn the one who entertains, warns, denounces, inverts values or even overturns the established order. If the crazy disappears from art when Reason and the Enlightenment triumph, in the 19th century the mad returns to being a figure with whom artists identify: "What if I were the madman?"
The City of Lights is a gift waiting to be unwrapped this holiday season. From the charms of Paris to the excellence of Bvlgari, every facet of the experience is a treasure.
