No Fear Friday: Owls

Welcome to No Fear Friday, where I good-natured-ly make fun of bad artwork from the Middle Ages, to hopefully inspire those interested in the scribal arts to give it a try. This week:

Owls

Hooboy, Owls are right up there with Bats. And by that I mean illustrators were just familiar enough with what real owls looked like to get them mostly right... and unfamiliar enough to get some of them really, really wrong. And they seem to be a favorite bird to add to illustrations and marginals, so I have over 57 examples saved in pinterest and will need to group some of these up again.

When In Doubt, Stick a Face on It

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 47r

Hugh of Fouilloy, Aviarium, France 13th century (BnF, Latin 14429 fol. 105v)

 

I'm going to coin this as my first rule of bad medieval art. When you are in doubt of how to draw an animal's features, just stick a human face and/or expression on it. Works every time!

Grootseminarie Brugge, MS. 89/54, Folio 7

Don't forget the eyebrows! Eyebrows are key to getting that perfect human expression. How can the owl roll it's eyes at you without proper eyebrows?

Bodleian library Douce 152 f. 70r

Rule 1, corollary A: Anthropomorphizing is especially encouraged if it involves a jaunty hat!

Beak Problems

Bestiary, France ca. 1280
Chalon-sur-Saône, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 14, fol. 66r

Super pointy needle-like beak you got there. Though it does nicely counteract the curly human like hair and human eyes (with eyebrows!)

John of Arderne Medical Treatises England: c.1475-1500

I see what you did there! Why draw a normal hooked beak when you can go straight-up curlicue?

Clermont-Ferrand - BM - ms. 0084 Heures à l'usage des Antonins

Wait... what? How did we get from beak to sideways pincers? Which is too bad, because otherwise this is a pretty decent representation. And rather cute until you realize that he has praying mantis jaws for a mouth.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, Folio 96r

But why stick with pincers when you can go full eldritch horror with a tentacle nose instead of a beak?

Doodles

Doodles are always fun...

England, ca. 15th century via The British Library,

Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Misc. 247, Folio 143v

Merton College Library, MS. 249, Folio 10v

...and also almost never look right. These last two doodles are of a specific type of owl that appears in medieval bestiaries called a Nicticorax which literally means 'Night Owl' or 'Night-Raven'.(Tentacle-nose up there was also a nicticorax)

Nicticorax

Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 533, Folio 18r

Morgan Library, MS M.81, Folio 62r

So these are all owls, and are classified as owls, but they certainly don't look like owls. But everyone is really insistent that they are, indeed, owls. I think this can be chalked up to the fact that the medieval imagination had plenty of room for a type of 'owl' that looked more like a raven without any cognitive dissonance at all. 

Screech Owls

British Library, Additional MS 8785, Folio 54v

Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, Folio 84v

What's with the necks, you ask? Apparently there was also a type of owl called Ulula, or more commonly, screech owls. So called because the noise of wailing and lamentation they made. And you can't make proper noises of wailing and lamentation unless you have a long enough neck to throw your head back dramatically. 

Obviously. 

Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, MS P.A. 78, Folio 37r

And this one also has little cloven feet to boot!

Eyes...the Eyes!

So apparently when you give up on drawing human-like eyes and try to draw big round owl eyes, two things have a chance of happening. Either those eyes are ridiculously round and staring...

Germany, Nuremberg, 1507-1510
Morgan Library, MS M.905 I, fol. 38v

Psalter, Canterbury ca. 1210-1220 Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1525, fol. 80r

Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus, 13th c.

'Tresample description de toute la Terre Saincte" c. 1540

Or, they become voids peering into the blackest pits of hell:

Breviary of Mary of Savoy, Lombardy ca. 1430, Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 4, fol. 447r

Livre d'heures, Author : Dauvel (Étienne) 1401-1500

Bruges ca. 1485-1490, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 170, fol. 106r

That owl on the right has seen things. Terrible, terrible things.

Feathers

...Just make for some fun images, ya'll.

British Library Stowe MS 17 'The Maastricht Hours', 179v

'The Maastricht Hours', Liège 14th century (BL, Stowe 17, fol. 24v)

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, Folio 78r

Also apparently easy to mistake for actual ears. But forgiving that, can we appreciate the feather mohawk going on here?

Evil Owl BL, Rutland Psalter, 13th c.

Are these horns supposed to be feathers, or did we just straight up slap some devil horns on this owl?

'Hours of Joanna the Mad' 1486-1506, British Library Add MS 18852 Folio 116v

That, sir, is a very fancy feather mustache you have there!

Trinity College Cambridge B.1.46

But this one is my favorite. He's not the best of the worst, but he definitely deserves pride of place for that fantastic hairstyle.

More Honorable Mentions

There's just so much to share this week....

Anjou 15th century Marseille, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 209, fol. 225v

Owl-Man, Owl-Man, doing the things an owl can....not. Yeah, let's just... not. 

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 88, Folio 21v A

What is wrong with this owl? Let me count the ways. We've got ears, a human face with a long tube-like beak. And the legs are more haunches with cat feet. It's like it combines all of the problems with drawing owls into one glorious illustration.

And Finally, The Best of the Worst

Add MS 28962 f. 203r

 Boom. My work here is done.

Next post in the series: Doodles!

Previous post in the series: Horses