Mouseion Head-footer with Owl

'Head-footer with Owl' (Jeroen Bosch)

Height: * cm
Jeroen Bosch
Issued: 2013

Product Information :

The Hermit Saints Triptych
This triptych depicts three early Christian saints who lived in complete
isolation to protect themselves from earthly temptation.
From the left to right: Saint Anthony who lived in the Egyptian desert;
Saint Jerome who lived in Bethlehem and Saint Giles, who lived as a
hermit in southern France.

At the bottom of the left-hand panel of the Hermit Saints Triptych
walks a head-footer among the fantastic animals.
The creature's anatomical inconsistencies are hidden by a turban.
Bosch here continues a classical Greek tradition in which leaving out large
areas of the body was seen as frightening. An owl nests on the torso-less
being's head.
Here it does not symbolise wisdom, like Athena's owl, but deception and scheming.
After all, this bird of prey was thought to surprise innocent sleeping prey in de the dark.