catboxer said:
I always thought both "mat" and "fou" simply meant "nuts." Similarity to the Persian "shah mat" must be coincidental.
That's the question I was posing. In chess, it is not coincidental at all, you can look it up - the Persian "shah mat" is the origin of the English "check mate", the French "échec et mat" and the Italian "scacco matto."
The check/échec/scacco, on the other hand - related to "checkered" (the chess board), or is it also related to "shah"?
But the main question is, are "matto" and "mat" meaning "mad", from a different root? Persian is an Indo-European language - perhaps the original meaning of "mad" is simply "gone" or "absent", another word for "dead", but equally applicable to madness - the mind is gone.
OR, are the two identical spellings of matto/mat merely orthographic coincidences, the one meaning coming from one direction, the other from Persian.? I'm not trying to state a definite answer at the moment, just posing the question. I am sure I could find the answer, once the libraries open again (closed for most of August here in France). But I am sure there are others equally capable of looking in an etymological source...
Somewhere between Calais and Dover the crazy person became a "fool," and the differences in both denotation and connotation have led to differences in interpretation as well. A fool is not insane, even though his capacities are limited due to his being silly, or naive, or merely stupid. The effeminate young man we see stepping over a cliff in the BOTA deck, with his head in the clouds and his feet firmly planted in thin air, is a far cry from the scary madmen of the earliest decks.
I will grant you that last point. But I am not sure about the first. Both sides of the channel had their court Fools, and as far as I can tell, folly, craziness, simplicity, ignorance, and sheer stupidity are all equally applicable to the Fool throughout time.
Or am I misunderstanding you?
The Mattos on the Visconti decks
Which one is there besides the Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, with the feathers in his hair?
are the most frightening. They're either retarded or schizoid or both, as well as physically ill, and they look dangerous. But there was quite a bit of variety in the presentation of this idea, even very early on, and the "Fou" from the so-called Gringonneur pack is a whole different animal. This guy is obviously the lenten King of Fools, and as the spirit of Fat Tuesday he beautifully conveys the feeling of that manic celebration, when all of society goes more or less nuts. I find this guy sinister and threatening, conveying a potential for violence just below the surface, like some modern-day clowns. But maybe that's just me.
I'll second that. Like the Charles VI/Gringonneur, which is usually attributed to a Ferrarese milieu, the Este decks show a gigantic figure with kids trying to pull his shorts down. I wonder if this might indicate that he is a representation of a carnival figure, with a giant costume on, such as still appear in carnival processions and parades.
The usual Marseille image provides a kind of transition from the ancient crazy men to the modern harmless and benign fools. This is one of the most cryptic, subtle, and difficult images in all of the history of art. He's called "Le Fou," but is he really crazy? He looks more like a vagabond or a tramp. Dogs chase him, children laugh at him, and village women tell him, "Keep moving, or I'll take my broom and hurry you along." I can't help relating this image to Bosch's Prodigal Son pictures, which are discussed somewhere on this thread. Now the prodigal son isn't really crazy; he's just, I guess you could say, confused.
That's a good place to leave it.
Maybe I see what you meant at the beginning now... that the Fool on the Smith-Waite deck weakens or softens the TdM image - i.e. across the channel. Ok.
I agree with your impressions of the TdM Fou completely. A vagabond, or tramp, but not a Gipsy (in community), but alone.
Overall, there is also the connection with the Illuminated capitals of Psalm 51, "The Fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'". He is usually carrying a big stick and looks disheveled.
Ross
