Folly was a common allegorical figure in medieval morality plays and in allegorical artwork through the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

. The depiction is generally of a young man, often similar in appearance to a jester or the tarot card, The Fool

The Fool (Tarot card)

The Fool or The Jester is one of the 78 cards in a Tarot deck; one of the 22 Trump cards that make up the Major Arcana. The Fool is unnumbered...

. In contrast to the many obvious classical

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 allusions in such works, the depictions owe little to the Greek goddess Atë

Ate

Atë or Aite a Greek word for "ruin, folly, delusion", is the action performed by the hero, usually because of hubris, that leads to his or her death or downfall. There is also a goddess by that name in Greek mythology, a personification of the same.In Homer's Iliad she is called eldest daughter...

.

In drama, the character tempts the protagonist into foolish action, successfully or not. In an allegorical painting, the figure may be counterpoised to Prudence, representing a choice, or alone, representing the unwisdom of the actors in the painting.

See also

• In Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
  Desiderius Erasmus
  Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian....
  
  .
• Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time
  Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time
  Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time is an allegorical painting by the Florentine artist Agnolo Bronzino. It is now in the National Gallery, London....
  
  , allegorical painting by Agnolo Bronzino
• "The Fool’s Pedagogy: Jesting for Liminal Learning", essay by Timothy McDonough