Keep Your Mouth Shut

Phoebus Focus XI

Keep Your Mouth Shut (‘Mondeken toe’) shows that the boundary between paintings and texts is wafer-thin and that the highest wisdom is sometimes a foolish game. As a connoisseur of Massijs, Bosch and the unique imagery of the Northern Renaissance, Larry Silver dissects all the motifs of the painting. The result is a special analysis of a curious scene, which even after five centuries turns out to be gripped from life.

In the Phoebus Focus series, experts and scientists discuss masterpieces from the rich collection of The Phoebus Foundation.