# Folly Steps Down from the Pulpit [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Pen and black ink ## Commentary The picture shows a margin drawing from Erasmus's The Praise of Folly \(fol. X4, quarto\). Spellbound and stunned by Folly's oratory, the audience sits open-mouthed in front of the pulpit, from which the woman in the fool's cap is already stepping down. In the accompanying text, Folly says: "If you think I speak too boldly and too much, remember that I am Folly, and a woman... I see you're waiting for a last word, but you're indeed fools if you think I can still remember what I said, for I have poured an almighty babble of words upon you... So indulge yourselves, clap a bit of applause, be off and have a drink, all you highly esteemed disciples of Folly!" ## Related artworks - [Adam and Eve]() - [Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus]() - [Charitas]() - [Charles Brandon]() - [Christ as the True Light]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan \(detail\)]() - [Christina of Denmark, Ducchess of Milan]() - [Courtier of Henry VIII and his Wife]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() - [Darmstadt Madonna \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()