Geraaert Lambertsz: Frenzy, ca. 1615; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This somewhat disturbing sculpture from around 1615 originally stood in the courtyard of an Amsterdam madhouse, a so-called Dolhuis (dol means crazy). The asylum for the mentally ill was located in the centre of Amsterdam, on the Kloveniersburgwal. Its inmates were locked up in small cells, all of which looked out on the courtyard and, thus, on this sculpture, commonly known as ‘Frenzy’.
Dolhuizen were seen as tourist attractions in the 17th century; this one in particular was assumed a ‘must have seen’ for visitors to Amsterdam. They paid an entrance fee to get in where they could walk around the courtyard and gaze at the lunatics in their cells and likewise enjoy the looks of the lively statue in the middle.
The figure, supposedly made by the artist Geraert Lambertsz, is impressive because of its perfect expression of the rage, fear and anxiety of a severe disturbed person The woman is almost naked and desperately pulls the hairs out of her head. On the plinth of the sculpture Lambertsz depicted four of the Dolhuis inmates, hysterically screaming and looking out of the window in their cells. Today this wonderful piece of art is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, which deliberately places it away from the walls, so that it can be viewed from all sides, just as the visitors of the Dolhuis once could.