Los juglares, cornamusas del diablo : las repercusiones iconográficas de la condena de los entretenedores

Throughout the Middle Ages, Christian writers condemned jesters because of the ways in which they contorted and thus altered their bodies. Considered sins against God, these practices engendered particular disapproval of acrobats, dancers, and contortionists. These types of jesters appear frequently in 13th and 14th century iconography in the form of carved reliefs found in churches and miniatures encountered in manuscripts. These diverse figurative documents display the repercussions of scholarly condemnations in various ways and degrees, especially by means of frequent associations between jesters and the baser and more despicable animals, such as apes, seen as playing an intermediate role between humans and the devil. As degenerated instruments of the devil, such entertainers dishonoured human dignity and were therefore represented as deformed, bestial, and demonic creatures.