The Ship of Fools

Hieronymus Bosch

c. 1490–1500 · Oil on oak panel · Musée du Louvre, Paris

Size2:3 ratio

Frame

$59Unframed print · made to order

📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.

Complete the setHangs well with these two

This print

The Ship of Fools

Death and the Miser

The Garden of Earthly Delights

3 × $59 at 16 × 24 in, unframed = $177 → $159.30 as a set · 10% included · free shipping

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Giclée-printed to order on heavyweight matte fine-art paper

Free shipping worldwide · arrives in 4–9 business days

Arrives perfect or we reprint it — free

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About this work

Artist: Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516)
Year: c. 1490–1500
Medium: Oil on oak panel
Original size: 58 × 32.5 cm
Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris
Movement: Northern Renaissance

A small boat crowded with revellers drifts on calm water: a monk and a nun sing with a lute between them as they bite at a pancake hanging on a string, a fool in a cap sits in the rigging, a man vomits over the side, swimmers beg for wine, and the mast is a living tree with a roast fowl tied to it and a pink pennant flying from its top. The image of a ship of fools, an allegory of human folly, was spread by Sebastian Brant's satire Das Narrenschiff of the 1490s. Bosch painted the panel in about 1490–1500; tree-ring dating places the wood after 1491. It is a fragment of one wing of a dismantled triptych on the deadly sins: its lower part, at Yale University Art Gallery, is known as Allegory of Gluttony, and the other wing is Death and the Miser in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Camille Benoit gave it to the Musée du Louvre in 1918, and it was restored in 2015.

This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.

Where it works

Monks, a nun and fools crowded in a small boat under a leafy mast on a pale sea, green, white and red, for a study, dining room or hallway at 24×36 in black. A sage, cream or charcoal wall; it pairs with Beware of Luxury (In Weelde Siet Toe).

Style, size & framing detail

Style: Exhibition poster of a Northern Renaissance painting
Era: 15th century (c. 1490–1500)
Orientation: Portrait
Palette: cream & beige
Mood: grand
Rooms: dining room, hallway or entryway, study or library, living room
Good gift for: housewarming, art lovers

Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.

Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.

Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).

Details & materials

• Exhibition poster — original, drawn in-house • Heavyweight matte fine-art paper, giclée printed at 300 DPI • Sizes: 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in; every size also available framed • Framed option: wood frame in black or natural wood, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, with a plexiglass front and no mat; the print is mounted inside and the frame's outside measures the listed size • Made to order; colours may vary slightly from screen

Shipping & returns

Printed after you order at the facility nearest you, then shipped. Standard delivery is free and takes 4–9 business days from order to door in the US, UK and EU (up to 10 elsewhere); Express takes 4–6 business days. Because each print is made to order we don't take change-of-mind returns, but if it arrives damaged or flawed we'll reprint or refund it — no return needed. Full policy →

Is this the whole painting, or a crop?

The whole work, uncropped. The exhibition-poster edition sets the complete image above typography designed in-house.

Is The Ship of Fools in the public domain?

Yes. Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) died more than 70 years ago and the work was published before 1929, so the painting itself is public domain. This print is a reproduction made from a high-resolution scan of the original, which is held by Musée du Louvre.

What is it printed on?

Heavyweight matte fine-art paper with pigment inks, made to order in 12×18, 16×24 and 24×36 inches; every size is also offered framed in black or natural wood, with plexiglass and no mat. Colours are matched to the scan, not brightened.

When was The Ship of Fools painted, and in what medium?

The Ship of Fools dates from c. 1490–1500 and was made in oil on oak panel; the original measures 58 × 32.5 cm.

What size works above a sofa or bed?

Across a three-seat sofa or a queen bed, 24×36 is the size that reads as one statement piece; 16×24 suits a narrower wall or a pair. For The Ship of Fools we'd choose 24×36.

About this design

A museum-exhibition poster of Hieronymus Bosch's The Ship of Fools — the Ship of Fools — monks, nuns and peasants feasting and singing in a drifting boat with a tree for a mast — shown whole and uncropped beneath gallery typography. Bosch: Visions and Follies, styled as a blockbuster exhibition print. A gallery-style exhibition poster: a celebrated public-domain artwork shown whole and uncropped beneath original exhibition typography set in-house — printed to order on heavyweight matte fine-art paper. Every size is offered unframed or framed in black or natural wood. Part of the Madten Exhibition Posters Collection. — — — Printed to order and shipped by our production partner, Gelato.

Buy with confidence

The Madten promise

Gallery-grade archival giclée. Rich pigment inks on heavyweight fine-art paper (or gallery-wrapped canvas) — built to last, not a poster-shop print.

Arrives perfect or we reprint it — free. Every piece is made to order; if it shows up damaged or flawed we remake it, no return needed.

Free worldwide shipping. Made & shipped from the facility nearest you — most orders arrive in 4–9 business days.

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