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The Fool

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...
Hark hark, the dogs do bark
the beggars are coming to town;
Some in rags and some in bags
And some in velvet gown...

Here's the best of fortune, but since after all Fortune is subject to events, something is tearing its clothes apart... the dog is hurting our dear Fool, or is it saving him from falling?

Interesting roots of the word "Matto" or "Le mat" as the card is called respectively in italian and french... and has been translated to english with the name "fool" because of a wrong interpretation.
The terms "mat" or "matto" which just appearantly mean "crazy, fool" have the same origin as the word "matador" in spanish or "chess mate" in english ("scacco matto" in italian), therefore coming from a very old persian word which means "TO KILL".

This doesn't mean though that this card represents Death or one of its agents, he's not a messenger, nor a actor in the drama... he's simply a spectator, in every important or tragic moment he's there, without doing anything, he observes and checks that everything is done as it's supposed to.

The fool is the end of things, card number zero, the start and the finish line, he's Fate, the Ensoph, The Everything and the Nothing, what is either for being too small or too big we cannot understand.

That's why in many decks the fool is represented as a giant, out of proportions among little men...

But he's also the skittish changes of destiny and fate, and infact that was the function of the Jester in the middle ages, to remind everyone, especially to their lords and masters, that they are just men... and death is always around the corner, for them as for anyone else.

That's why I decided to make this character a mix of richness and poverty... the rags and the velvet.

Everything was forgiven to the Jester, as a result of an ancient roman tradition during the saturnalia (in italy this still remains during the carnival when "ogni scherzo vale" ... "all jokes are allowed"), when a young guy was chosen to be sacrificed to the god of Time, Chronos or Saturn, and he could live his last months doing whatever could please him until he was killed.

The Fool so is not a "fool" he's the joker (the only card of the ancient tarots that remains in the french deck as the Jolly, and can be used instead of any other card), he's God's Fool, the one too absorbed by the wonders of the universe to mind what he's doing...or where he's going.
He's fortune! So he doesn't know where he's going to put his foot...

after all, when the Finger points to the moon, the Fool looks at the finger ;)

....
The Jester he sleeps, but the raven he peeps....
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3786x6161px 17.82 MB
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clandestinezen's avatar
Thus I see my self!