Possibly Rasmussen collection, Stockholm (according to the Becker catalogue under Literature)
Friedrich Gutmann (1886-1944), Heemstede, near Haarlem (as Burgundian), probably acquired in the early 1920s;
By whom sold through a forced or involuntary sale to Julius Böhler on 11th February 1942;
With Julius Böhler, Munich, 1942-1945;
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.

E. Buchner, Das deutsche Bildnis der Spätgotik under der frühen Dürerzeit, Berlin 1953, pp. 121, 207, no. 135, reproduced plate 135 (as a Tyrolean Master from the end of the 15th Century);
R. Fritz, Sammlung Becker, Dortmund 1967, (unpaginated), no. 14, reproduced (as above);
A. Schnackenburg-Broschek, in E. Mai (ed.), Das Kabinett des Sammlers.  Gemälde vom XV. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert, Cologne 1993, pp. 6-68, reproduced (as from the circle of Bernhard Strigel);
J. Koldeweij, Geloof and Geluk (French ed. entitled Foi & Bonne Fortune, Parure et Dévotion en Flandre Médiévale), exhibition catalogue, Bruges 2006, pp. 56-7, reproduced fig. 3.27.

Ernst Buchner published this picture as most likely a burlesque depiction of a Hofnarr (Court Fool or Jester), on account of his gaudy costume, and as painted around 1500 in the North Tyrol or Alpine Lands.  Fritz doubted this identification, given the expensive bejewelled hat and the rings the sitter wears, but also dates it to the end of the 15^th Century or around 1500, noting that the Warzenbacher (literally `warty [glass] beaker') brandished by the sitter is characteristic of the Tyrol at that date.¹

Kurt Löcher confirmed Buchner's identification of the subject as a Hofnarr, and suggested that he is Narr Pock, one of the five Naturlich Narren (Natural Fools) depicted in a triumphal carriage in Hans Burgkmair's large series of woodcuts depicting The Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I (see fig. 1).²  He is prominent in the centre of the carriage, wearing a hat decorated with badges and ribbons which match those in the present picture, and with a large feather projecting rearwards as here.  He gestures with his hand, on which Löcher was able to detect four rings, including two on the same finger, as we see in the painting.

The wine (or beer) beaker was a common attribute of the fool, and according to fool imagery the mouth should be partly open, revealing his teeth, and indicating laughter.  Furthermore the Mi-parti clothes and hat, decorated to excess (Ueberladenheit), heightens the ridiculous appearance of the fool.

Building on the research of Löcher, who attempted to identify the decorations on Pock's hat, Koldeweij has connected two of them with known insignia.³  Among these is a gilt hat-pin of Saint Christopher, which very similar to a lead-tin alloy insignia datable circa 1425-1474, and another of the letter M surmounted by a crown which resembles, but less closely, another lead-tin alloy insignia.⁴  Both Löcher and Koldeweij think that this letter refers to Pock's patron, the Emperor Maximilian.  To the left is a jewelled hat-pin flanked (one side only is visible) by a dragon. The dragon might evoke the sayings of King Solomon (Chapter 23, verse 31) in which wine is characterized as being easily swallowed but biting like a snake the next day.  The dragon jewel may also be a Vanitas emblem, bearing a warning of decadence and revealing sin as a snake, and this is in accordance with the Fool's function as a living reminder and embodiment of Vanitas.

We are grateful to Ian Tyers of Dendrochronological Consultancy Ltd (report 347) for informing us that the oak panel is not of Netherlandish or Baltic origin, and thus probably Tyrolean.

W♎e are grateful to Anne Webber and Simon Goodman for their help in establishing the provenance.

1.  For both see literature, 1953 and 1967.
2.  Löcher's unpublished research is quoted extensively by Schnackenburg-Broschek under literature, 1993.
3.  See under literature, 2006.
4.  Both Découverte Nieuwlande; see Koldeweij, 2006, pp. 57, reproduced p. 56, figs 3.25 &a𒀰mp; 3.26.