‘Every king needs at least one fool. The fool is meant to disturb with glimpses of confounding truths that elude rational formulation. To herald the advent of cosmic shifts and to apprehend their significance. To challenge by jest and conundrum all that is sacred and all that the savants have proved to be true and immutable. Every leader, like King Lear, needs at least one Fool. (Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, p. 196).

The painting, Jester with a Lute, is by Frans Hals from c. 1620-5. Oil on wood, 71 x 62 cm; Musée du Louvre, Paris.