The artistic representation of insanity. Contemporary metaphorological interpretations through the Ship of fools

Abstract

This article describe the metaphorological interpretations of one of the allegorical forms of the representation of madness most used in the arts in the West since the s. XV to date: The ship of fool people. Through the analysis of pieces inspired by this metaphor in its origins with the work of Brant and El Bosco, it is sought to understand how art currently uses such a allegoric resource, in its eagerness to understand the limits of sanity in contemporary times. For this, we will analyze works like “Losing the Head” (2000) by Francesc Torres and “The Raft of George W. Bush” (2006) by Joel Peter Witkin. Art Contemporary that reflect the management of neobaroque discourses immanent to the practices of intertextuality, the dissolution of the author, the aestheticization of existence, the daily life and the dematerialization of the work of art; all of them in order to reflect on the complexity of the mind and the liminality between sanity and madness.