Description
Dancers with Owl: At bottom right on the central panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, two figures — partially hidden inside a fruit — seem to engage in a ritual dance. This could refer to the three fatal dances in life: love, fate and death. An unruffled owl sits atop the fruit, probably not as a symbol of wisdom as is the case with Athena’s owl, but as a symbol of deceit and scheming. After all, this predator was said to surprise its innocent, sleeping prey in the dark.
