Me: Oh no! How did I come to land on you?
Ship of Fools: You needn’t start priding yourself.
Me: Do you think you know what I really think?
Ship of Fools: I don’t think; I know: Do something you like doing. Get rid of all of the bosses in your life and make your own time schedule. Spend as much time as you can with the people who mean the most to you. And make sure that you get something done every day.
“In dunce's dance I take the lead, / Books useless, numerous my creed, / Which I can't understand or read.” This rather amiable self-assessment was written by Sebastian Brant and precedes his main work. His moral satire ‘Ship of Fools’ was written in 1494, a few years after the invention of the printing press. Whether poor or rich, young or old, male or female, human depravity seemed to know no bounds. The scene is on one of the ships, if not the Ship of Cockaigne itself; society appears as a microcosm upon a kind of ark of madness, and by all means feel free to read any connotations into this. Human blunders and weaknesses are revealed with satirical exaggeration. So the human being feels capable of venturing out to sea, into the sphere of the gods? Insolent pride was always considered to be the first and therefore the worst of Christianity’s seven deadly sins. The appropriate roll of thunder will not be long in coming. Ship ahoi! P.S.: Brant’s opening quote can easily be applied to the art trade; if the word ‘books’ is merely replaced by ‘artworks’, the feeling of unease once again makes itself felt.
AR
Image: Sebastian Brandt: "Ship of Fools" (Coverpage), Woodcut, Basel 1494
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