DOI Heft:
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DOI Artikel:Paszkiewicz, Piotr: Noctural bird of wisdom: symbolic functions of the owl in emblems
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18898#0082
Hay Wagon (Madrid, Prado), the Wanderer (Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen)
or the Lover's Dream (Madrid, Museo Lasaro Galdiano).
As L. van Puyvelde suggests, the wagon of liay pulled by monsters towards heli in the central
painting of Bosch's triptych in Prado is a Flemish symbol of greed for transient wordly posses-
sions52. In a description of a carnival pageant of 1563, preserved in Antwerp, we read:
On a wagon of hay, a Satyr called Deceitful Temptation is seated and behind it, people
of different origins are pulling at the straw ■— usurers, cashiers, merchants... Their wordly
profit is like hay53.
The cart shoWn by Bosch is surrounded by people stealing hay and murdering one anther. They
seem negligent of Christ who shows himself in heaven and reveals his wounds. In addition to
the motif of greed for wordly possessions, several obviously erotic motifs can be distinguish ed
in the painting. Above the Wagon with hay, tree-tops arc shown, at the feet of which the painter
presented a couple of lovers playing musical isntruments. They are accompanied by another
lovemaking couple. The erotic meaning of the scenę is enhanced by the jug hanging on a pole.
In paintings, a jug has often functioned as a synonymof female sex organs; while, inthis context,
a pole or a stick has played the role of a phallic symbol in various cultures54. Hence, the me-
aning of the owi appearing in the painting is quite elear. Tied to a branch as a bait bird, it acts
as an encouragement to sinful love.
The owi has a decidedly erotic meaning in a painting by Bosch's imitator, the Lover's Dream.
It shows both a sleeping man in the left part of the composition and his dreams. They are con-
centrated round the huge mask but are present in the right part of the painting as well. The
hideous mask with empty eye-sockets shows the lover's two dreams, his greed for money (sym-
bolized by lumps of gold falling from the mask's nose into a tub) and his wish for love. The latter
is expressed by the obscene image of a promiscuous bath in a large tub and by the castigation
performed upon the sleeping man by a huge owi, accompanied by another, similar bird of prey
and a monkey.
The popularity of the owi as an erotic iconographic motif was caused undoubtedly by its appe-
arance in contemporary emblems where the owi was often identified with sinful love or simply de-
bauchery. In the emblem SENEX PUELLAM AMANS (Old Man in Love with a Girl) by
Alciati, the girl of easy virtue is compared to an owi (fig. 13):
Dum Sophocles (ąuamuis affecta aetate) puełlam
A ąuaeslu Archippen,ad sua vota trahit,
Allicit et pretio, tulit aegre insana iurentus
Ob zelum, et tali carmine utrunąue notat.
Noctua ut tumulis, super utąue cadauera bubo,
Talis apud Sophoclem nostra puełla sedet55.
Similarly, in the emblem AM A QUOD FOEMINA DEBES (Let Woman Love What Is Her
Due) by Nicolaus Reusner, the owi is a symbol of licentious love:
Supposuit lasciva femur ąuod turpe parenti
Nyctimene, lucern, noctua facta, fugit.
52. L. van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siccle de Bosch et Brueglicl, Paris, 1962, p. 49.
53. A. Boczkowska, Hieronim Bosch, Warszawa, 1974, p. 22.
54. K. Seligmann, „Hieronymus Bosch. The Pedlar", Gazetle des Beaux-Arls, LII, 1953, No 9, pp. 100—101.
55. A. Alciati, Emblematum Liber, op. cii., No 116:
When Sophocles (though well in years)
Tries to puli nearer a prostitute girl, Archippc,
And lures her with moncy, this frenzied youth cannot casily bear.
Jcalous, he rehukes them with this song.
Like an owi on a grave and an eagle owi on corpses
So the girl sits at Sophocles.
76
or the Lover's Dream (Madrid, Museo Lasaro Galdiano).
As L. van Puyvelde suggests, the wagon of liay pulled by monsters towards heli in the central
painting of Bosch's triptych in Prado is a Flemish symbol of greed for transient wordly posses-
sions52. In a description of a carnival pageant of 1563, preserved in Antwerp, we read:
On a wagon of hay, a Satyr called Deceitful Temptation is seated and behind it, people
of different origins are pulling at the straw ■— usurers, cashiers, merchants... Their wordly
profit is like hay53.
The cart shoWn by Bosch is surrounded by people stealing hay and murdering one anther. They
seem negligent of Christ who shows himself in heaven and reveals his wounds. In addition to
the motif of greed for wordly possessions, several obviously erotic motifs can be distinguish ed
in the painting. Above the Wagon with hay, tree-tops arc shown, at the feet of which the painter
presented a couple of lovers playing musical isntruments. They are accompanied by another
lovemaking couple. The erotic meaning of the scenę is enhanced by the jug hanging on a pole.
In paintings, a jug has often functioned as a synonymof female sex organs; while, inthis context,
a pole or a stick has played the role of a phallic symbol in various cultures54. Hence, the me-
aning of the owi appearing in the painting is quite elear. Tied to a branch as a bait bird, it acts
as an encouragement to sinful love.
The owi has a decidedly erotic meaning in a painting by Bosch's imitator, the Lover's Dream.
It shows both a sleeping man in the left part of the composition and his dreams. They are con-
centrated round the huge mask but are present in the right part of the painting as well. The
hideous mask with empty eye-sockets shows the lover's two dreams, his greed for money (sym-
bolized by lumps of gold falling from the mask's nose into a tub) and his wish for love. The latter
is expressed by the obscene image of a promiscuous bath in a large tub and by the castigation
performed upon the sleeping man by a huge owi, accompanied by another, similar bird of prey
and a monkey.
The popularity of the owi as an erotic iconographic motif was caused undoubtedly by its appe-
arance in contemporary emblems where the owi was often identified with sinful love or simply de-
bauchery. In the emblem SENEX PUELLAM AMANS (Old Man in Love with a Girl) by
Alciati, the girl of easy virtue is compared to an owi (fig. 13):
Dum Sophocles (ąuamuis affecta aetate) puełlam
A ąuaeslu Archippen,ad sua vota trahit,
Allicit et pretio, tulit aegre insana iurentus
Ob zelum, et tali carmine utrunąue notat.
Noctua ut tumulis, super utąue cadauera bubo,
Talis apud Sophoclem nostra puełla sedet55.
Similarly, in the emblem AM A QUOD FOEMINA DEBES (Let Woman Love What Is Her
Due) by Nicolaus Reusner, the owi is a symbol of licentious love:
Supposuit lasciva femur ąuod turpe parenti
Nyctimene, lucern, noctua facta, fugit.
52. L. van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siccle de Bosch et Brueglicl, Paris, 1962, p. 49.
53. A. Boczkowska, Hieronim Bosch, Warszawa, 1974, p. 22.
54. K. Seligmann, „Hieronymus Bosch. The Pedlar", Gazetle des Beaux-Arls, LII, 1953, No 9, pp. 100—101.
55. A. Alciati, Emblematum Liber, op. cii., No 116:
When Sophocles (though well in years)
Tries to puli nearer a prostitute girl, Archippc,
And lures her with moncy, this frenzied youth cannot casily bear.
Jcalous, he rehukes them with this song.
Like an owi on a grave and an eagle owi on corpses
So the girl sits at Sophocles.
76