Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (23.1982)

Emblematic literaturę of modern tim.es was not the only source which, by associating the owi
with sin, affected relevant 17th century repressentations done in the Netherlands. The above
idea was first rendered in the visual arts in the 15th and 16th centuries. Quite often represen-
tations focused not on sin as such but the punishement awaiting sinner. Let us take, for instance,
H. Cock's print based on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Lastjudgement. A big owi, a ne.st with two
little owls on its neck, is one of the nunierous creatures harassing the damned. Silmiarly, in
Jan de Cock's (?) painting Heli, an owi is placed beside a monster's wide open jaws. The tradition
of identifying the owi with the infernal abyss was passed down to the 17th century, though
examples of it were not very frequent. This is evidenced by a painting produced in Jan BrucgePs
studio, entitled Aeneas in the Limbo (Brussels, Musees Boyaux des Beaux-Arts). Among mon-
sters tormenting people (enormous frogs, snakes, lizards or fish), it shows an owi with red glowing
eyes in the dark part of the bottom left corner.

In the art of Germany and the Netherlands, the owi appears likewise in several represen-
tations of original sin. Because of its sinful naturę and uncleanliness, which it has personified
sińce the Old Testament („These are the birds you shall regard as vermin and for this reason
they shall not be eaten: ...the bearded vulture (or ossifrage), ... the desert-owl, the short-eared
owi, the long-eared owi, the tawny owi, the fisher-owl, and the screech-owl, the little owi, the
horned owi, ... the osprey,... every kind of cormorant..."40), its presence stresses even more
the meaning of the scenę which, according to Christian doctrine, is seen as the beginning of all
evil and sin into which the First Parents havc led mankind. Among the earliest examples, the
left wing of the triptych The Garden of the Earthly Delight by Hicronymus Bosch (Madrid, Prado)
should be mentioned. The owi appears in the dark opening of the Fountain of Life, watching
the nuptials of Adam and Eve going on below, which portends the imminent sin. Among
other painted representations of the tlieme of the owi witnessing the fali of man, which brings
out the message of the composition, mention is due to paintings by Jan Gossaert (Berlin-Dahlem)
and Cornelis van Haarlem of 1592 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (fig.8). In these two works the
owi is accompanied by a monkey (a symbol of a sinner), morcover, in Cornelis van Haarlem's
painting the monkey is shown caressing a cat that in the culture and painting of the area often
functioned as a symbol of debauchery and greed for wordly possessions41.

The owi as a symbol of malicious blindness to good, a sing of sinful conduct was associated
with representations of all sorts of sins42. The tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, was
only enriched in the 17th century. Thus, the tale that the bird has the habit of drinking oil from
perpetually burning lamps in churchcs may account for the identification of the owi with Gula,
the sin of gluttony and drunkenness. In the Dialogus Creaturarum, first publishcd in 1480 (Gouda)
and later often republished, we find the following passage:

It (the owi) is cruel ... fuli of sloth and feeblc to fly...

To put out the light with another's hand wishes

The owi which hates all light,

So later to reach for and drink the oil

So that it could not be disposed of during daylight

So as to extinguish what the kings have brought to bloom.

The Kingdom of Christ, Light living and completc,

So as later to devour the innocent.

40. Lev. 11: 13—16.

41. As early as the 16th century, the hieroglyph of a cat was understood as ,,love"; such was the case also in the following
century. Cf. J. Becker,, ,Dieses emblematische Stuck stellet die Erziehung der Jugend vor". Zu Adriaen van der Werff.
Miinchen Alte Pinakothek. Inv. Nr 250, Oud Holland, XC, 1976, No 2, p. 85, note 20.

42. H. Schwarz, V. Plagemann, op. cii., p. 306.

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