DOI issue:
Nr. 1-4
DOI article:Paszkiewicz, Piotr: Noctural bird of wisdom: symbolic functions of the owl in emblems
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18898#0076
7. G. La Perriere, La Morosophie..., 1553
It Works in churehes, drinks the oil of the lamps
and defiles them with its excrement43.
The motif occurs in modern emblems, e.g. in Georgette de Montanay's emblem SIC VIVO,
mentioncd before, or Pierre Woeriot's Emblems Chrestiennesu. The owi appeared frequently
in connection with drunkennes and debauchery in the art of Germany and the Netherlands
from the 15th century onwards. Often, as in the case with Hieronymus Cock's copperplate-
cngraving The Oyster-Shell after Bosch or Jan Steen's painting Afler a Drinking Bout, it sym-
bolizes the two sins at the same time. (fig. 9). The association of the owi with drankenness was
so popular at that time that it was reflected in the contemporary Dutch language, with the po-
pularity of the proverb used up to the 19th century, namely, Hij is zoo beschonken ais een uil
(drunk like an owi)45.
43. Quoted after J. Rosenberg,,,On the meaning of a Bosch drawing", in: De arlibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin
Panofsky, New York, 1961, p. 424.
44. H. Schwarz, V. Plagemann, op. cit., p. 317.
45. S. Slive, op. cii., p. 435.
70
It Works in churehes, drinks the oil of the lamps
and defiles them with its excrement43.
The motif occurs in modern emblems, e.g. in Georgette de Montanay's emblem SIC VIVO,
mentioncd before, or Pierre Woeriot's Emblems Chrestiennesu. The owi appeared frequently
in connection with drunkennes and debauchery in the art of Germany and the Netherlands
from the 15th century onwards. Often, as in the case with Hieronymus Cock's copperplate-
cngraving The Oyster-Shell after Bosch or Jan Steen's painting Afler a Drinking Bout, it sym-
bolizes the two sins at the same time. (fig. 9). The association of the owi with drankenness was
so popular at that time that it was reflected in the contemporary Dutch language, with the po-
pularity of the proverb used up to the 19th century, namely, Hij is zoo beschonken ais een uil
(drunk like an owi)45.
43. Quoted after J. Rosenberg,,,On the meaning of a Bosch drawing", in: De arlibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin
Panofsky, New York, 1961, p. 424.
44. H. Schwarz, V. Plagemann, op. cit., p. 317.
45. S. Slive, op. cii., p. 435.
70