Bosch often used owls in his works. “Blote-Obbes (1964) rightly pointed out that Bosch depicted various kinds of owl such as the little owl (The Hay Wain and so-called Prodigal Son), the long-eared owl and the townie owl (The Garden of Earthly Delights) (Marijnissev and Ruyffelaere, 465). The iconography of his owl is typically either a body-vessel with deep eyeholes, or just a head with eyes. His owls can be found in very unpredictable places. Usually it appears as a silent observer, emerging from behind the corner, column, picking out from the inside of a basket, or hiding in a tree. Bosch used owl in a lot of his works, so we could see it almost as his logo. I don’t believe he ever signed his paintings, so we could see an owl as a signature.
