TYROLEAN SCHOOL, PROBABLY INNSBRUCK, CIRCA 1515 | Portrait of a jester at the court of the Emperor Maximilian I, identified as Narr Pock or Hanns Wynter, bust-length, dressed as a fool and holding a beaker

Possibly Rasmussen collection, Stockholm (according to Fritz, see Literature);
Friedrich Gutmann (1886–1944), Heemstede, near Haarlem, probably acquired in the early 1920s (as Burgundian);
By whom sold through a forced or involuntary sale to Julius Böhler, 11 February 1942;
With Julius Böhler, Munich, 1942–45;
Recovered by the Dutch authorities in 1946, and returned to the Gutmann family by them in January 1954;
Sold by the Gutmann family later that year through V. Modrzejewski, Amsterdam; 
Becker collection, Dortmund, by 1954, until after 1967, and probably until 1979;
With Hans M. Cramer, The Hague, 1979 (in his Catalogue XXI of that year, no. 11);
In the collection of the late husband of the present owner by 1993.

Dortmund, Schloss Cappenburg, Meisterwerke alter Malerei, 1954, no. 13;
Kassel, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, on loan (inv. no. L 1100);
Bruges, Bruggemuseum-Gruuthuse, Geloof en Geluk, Jewelry and Devotion in Medieval Flanders, 22 September 2006 – 4 February 2007, no. 3.27 (as from the circle of Bernhard Strigel).

E. Buchner, Das deutsche Bildnis der Spätgotik under der frühen Dürerzeit, Berlin 1953, pp. 121 and 207, cat. no. 135, reproduced plate 135 (as a Tyrolean Master from the end of the 15th century);
R. Fritz, Sammlung Becker, Dortmund 1967, unpaginated, cat. no. 14, reproduced (as a Tyrolean Master from the end of the 15th Century);
A. Schnackenburg-Broschek, in E. Mai (ed.), Das Kabinett des Sammlers. Gemälde vom XV. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert, Cologne 1993, pp. 66–68, reproduced (as from the circle of Bernhard Strigel);
J. Koldeweij, Geloof and Geluk, exh. cat., Bruges 2006, pp. 56–57, reproduced in colour fig. 3.27 (as from the circle of Bernhard Strigel);
E. Pokorny, in L. Madersbacher and E. Pokorny (eds), Maximilianus. Die Kunst des Kaisers. L´arte dell´Imperatore, exh. cat., Castle Tyrol 2019, under cat. no. 13.22.

The single panel is uncradled, flat and stable. The paint surface is slightly dirty, and the varnish slightly discoloured. The flesh tones were most probably originally rather thinly painted, and now reveal much of the under-drawing in the sitter's face and fingers. There is some retouching visible to the naked eye in the form of small spots in the sitter's chin, and to a thin, horizontal line where the paint surface appears to have lifted slightly in the past, most visible in the sitter's cheek and in the background to the right of his face. This is now stable. Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms these, and also reveals a handful of small retouchings scattered below the sitter's left eye, and in the green background. In overall good condition.
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This portrait has been identified as a likeness of a Hofnarr (Court Fool or Jester), specifically one of the five Naturlich Narren (Natural Fools) that are depicted in a triumphal carriage, surmounted with plants and trees, in Hans Burgkmair's large series of woodcuts depicting The Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I, circa 1516-18 (fig. 1). Kurt Löcher (see Literature) was the first to suggest that the figure is synonymous with the fool prominent in the centre of the group, wearing a hat decorated with a large feather, badges and ribbons, which match those in the present picture. In the print he is reaching for the Jew’s harp being played by another of the fools, gesturing with his hand, on which Löcher was able to detect four rings, including two on the same finger, as in this painting. Maximilian I named his fools – by the early 16th century customary members of a royal or noble household – either with a first name or a humorous nickname, indicating that without a family name or place of origin they were outsider figures of no defined social status. The men in the carriage are recorded as: ‘Gylyme, Pock, Gülchisch Caspar, Hanns Wynnter, Guggeryllis.’ The subject of the present portrait, and the figure in Burgkmair’s print, has until now been identified as Pock. More recently, however, Erwin Pokorny has suggested that he may be Hanns Wynter, the only fool with a full name, since in the same series of woodcuts, Burgkmair depicts the figures of the Five Court Offices (block 16), from cup-bearer to shoemaker, according to the order that was dictated by the Emperor.¹ If this print follows the same logic, Guggeryllis must be playing the instrument with Wynnter reaching for it.

Building on the research of Löcher, who attempted to identify the decorations on Pock's hat,² Jos Koldeweij connected two of them with known insignia (see Literature). Among these is a gilt hat-pin of Saint Christopher, which is very similar to a lead-tin alloy insignia datable to circa 1425–74, and another of the letter M surmounted by a crown which resembles, though less closely, another insignia, believed to refer to the fools’ patron, Emperor Maximilian.³ To the left is a jewelled hat-pin flanked by a dragon, possibly evoking the sayings of King Solomon in which wine is characterised as being easily swallowed but biting like a snake the next day (Proverbs 23: 31–32). The wine (or beer) glass that the sitter is brandishing here was a common attribute of the fool. Rolf Fritz (see Literature) noted that this Warzenbacher (literally 'warty beaker') is characteristic of the Tyrol, circa 1500.⁴

The dragon jewel may also be a vanitas emblem, bearing a warning of decadence and revealing sin as a snake, in accordance with the fool's function as a living reminder and embodiment of Vanitas. This theme is also emphasised by the sitter’s gaudy jewellery and costume, decorated to excess, designed to appear ludicrous rather than luxurious, as well as the stock type of his expression – mouth partly open to reveal his teeth, indicating laughter.

1 Written communication, 26 March 2019; also see Pokorny 2019, under Literature.
2 Löcher's unpublished research is quoted extensively by Schnackenburg-Broschek (see Literature).
3 See Koldeweij 2006, p. 57, reproduced p. 56, figs 3.25 and 3.26.
4 Dendrochronological analysis carried out by Ian Tyers of Dendrochronological Consultancy Ltd in 2011 also confirmed that the oak panel is not of Netherlandish or Baltic origin, and thus probably Tyrolean.