There is a school of thought that owls that are aplenty in all Bosch's paintings are also symbols for sodomy (aka dark sexual desires). Bosch is only second to Bronzino in his use of owls as such a signifier and Bronzino was, well, gay (see http://www.unifi.it/unifi/surfchem/solid/bardi/chimera/bronzino for more details). Just a couple of examples chosen at random from the Internet:
A third body of water with amorous swimmers appears in the left foreground of the Garden where masturbation, lascivious dancing, and interracial mingling violate the divine order established in Paradise. If the watery tango refers to the proverbial lascivious of court dance, masturbation may refer to attacks on courtly sexuality as a force outside marriage and procreation tied to individual gratification. In any case, the naked man embracing an owl at the far left of this pond repeats the association in the Paradise scene between the phallic pink tower and the owl while clarifying its implied lasciviousness. So does round entrance in the blue tower in the rear where the owl of Paradise gives way to fornication and implied sodomy. Ever eager to extend his metaphors, Bosch painted a third owl roosting in a giant pink berry which forms the head of two dancing human bodies directly across the composition from the owl and amorous man, in the right foreground.
...A dead give-away is the owl. An amazing number of Bosch pictures, when you look for them, contain the tiny shapes of owls peeping from nooks and crannies...the Garden is full of them being cuddled and nursed. It may be disappointing to anyone who appreciates the Garden as a scene of pleasure and freedom, but the owls are reinforced by the fruit, situated so frequently around the figure's genitalia, and even by the modern-appreciated inclusion of negro figures. http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Bosch.html
...in the right middle ground of the center panel, Bosch presents a dense group of postlapsarian nudes (but depicted without postlapsarian shame, just above a large owl); they pluck cherries and strawberries from a fertile grove, as if reenacting Original Sin in collective indulgence. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_83/ai_84209190/pg_8
Well, that's enough. Now you know what owls are for.
There is one thing that I find remarkable about this paintings. The whole inner ring of the 7th circle is there: murderers, blasphemers, sodomites, etc. But not a single usurer! I've never read any explanation for this telling omission.
Огромное спасибо. Мои книги о совах упоминают крайне скупо, ночь-грех-античная мудрость. Я и не поредполагал каких-либо содомских ассоциаций. Ещё раз большое спасибо.
A third body of water with amorous swimmers appears in the left foreground of the Garden where masturbation, lascivious dancing, and interracial mingling violate the divine order established in Paradise. If the watery tango refers to the proverbial lascivious of court dance, masturbation may refer to attacks on courtly sexuality as a force outside marriage and procreation tied to individual gratification. In any case, the naked man embracing an owl at the far left of this pond repeats the association in the Paradise scene between the phallic pink tower and the owl while clarifying its implied lasciviousness. So does round entrance in the blue tower in the rear where the owl of Paradise gives way to fornication and implied sodomy. Ever eager to extend his metaphors, Bosch painted a third owl roosting in a giant pink berry which forms the head of two dancing human bodies directly across the composition from the owl and amorous man, in the right foreground.
...A dead give-away is the owl. An amazing number of Bosch pictures, when you look for them, contain the tiny shapes of owls peeping from nooks and crannies...the Garden is full of them being cuddled and nursed. It may be disappointing to anyone who appreciates the Garden as a scene of pleasure and freedom, but the owls are reinforced by the fruit, situated so frequently around the figure's genitalia, and even by the modern-appreciated inclusion of negro figures. http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Bosch.html
...in the right middle ground of the center panel, Bosch presents a dense group of postlapsarian nudes (but depicted without postlapsarian shame, just above a large owl); they pluck cherries and strawberries from a fertile grove, as if reenacting Original Sin in collective indulgence. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_83/ai_84209190/pg_8
Well, that's enough. Now you know what owls are for.
There is one thing that I find remarkable about this paintings. The whole inner ring of the 7th circle is there: murderers, blasphemers, sodomites, etc. But not a single usurer! I've never read any explanation for this telling omission.
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