This painting reinterprets Hieronymus Bosch’s painting, The Ship of Fools (1500-1510), but here Orlik has transplanted a leg of ham for a man’s reaching arm, a large circular flower for a bowl of cherries and a sail, which is also a crescent moon, for the curved shape of the jester’s rounded back. The jester was seen as the fool who was often the only person who could poke at authority by speaking truth to their powerful overlord. (“The jester is very important”, Henry Orlik, in conversation with Henry Orlik, 24th April 2025). Bosch’s watching owl in the tree has become an egg. Additionally, Orlik has placed two fighting eagles, with agitated wings, on the top of the tree.

The theme of The Ship of Fools comes from Sebastian Brant’s (1458-1521) novel, Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools, 1494). This had become a medieval motif which could be loosely traced to a story in Plato’s Republic (Book VI) which tells of a ship with a dysfunctional crew, with no capable leader at the helm. It allegorically represents a political system without a wise leader to govern it. Katherine Anne Porter’s bestselling novel The Ship of Fools (1962) re-frames the allegory in a twentieth century setting. It was adapted for film in 1965 with a star-studded cast and was Vivien Leigh’s last film.

Orlik used the eagle as a symbol of imperial power as it has been used by several imperial powers from Ancient Rome onwards. In The Ship of Fools, the eagles are fighting. Orlik explained them as opposing forces: “we are always fighting our neighbours.” (in conversation with Henry Orlik, 24th April 2025). One wonders, in Orlik’s painting, what the eagles will hatch from their egg.