The different guises of the saint

Early depictions of Sinterklaas depict him as a holy man, but Sinterklaas hasn’t always been portrayed as a saint. The poet Jan van Gijsen mentions a Sinterklaas figure in Amsterdam in 1720 dressed as a jester; an 18th-century centsprent (the forerunner of the comic strip: see an example) in the Fries Museum at Leeuwarden also depicts this harlequin figure. A 16th-century illustration held in the Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg shows a jester throwing nuts to children while seated on his horse for the Schembartlauf. This places the gift-giving figure at Carnival, similar to Sintegreef in Belgium, who is also sometimes portrayed with a jester’s hat.