A fool mocks death, who reacts in amusement even as he leads him away to the sound of his bagpipe. This woodcut from Holbein's dance of death has a multi layered meaning and is best understood in contrast with some of the other vignettes where the dying person tries to fight of death. Here, instead, the idiot is too foolish to be afraid, or is he in fact the wiser of th elot, not fearing death. But in the end the result is the same.
I had to censor a part of the illustration to keep Google happy. Suffice it to say that the man in the picture did not have any underpants.
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Holbein - the Dance of Death.
