Adriaen van de Venne
Two owls wear human clothes: one sports the blue woolen cap worn by fishermen and peasants in the Netherlands at this time and the other wears the ruffs fashionable among the merchant classes and a black cloak of the kind worn by women in winter. The two birds skate across the ice against the backdrop of a winter landscape.
A banner above their heads reads “How well we go together,” possibly a reference to the familiar saying “Birds of a feather flock together.” The painting was part of a series depicting animals in human garb. The other paintings are now only known through print reproductions. In the 16th and 17th centuries the owl was associated with winter. Perhaps that fact offers some aid in interpreting the symbolism of this enigmatic painting. We present today's work thanks to the Statens Museum for Kunst.
P.S. The Dutch definitely had a thing for owls, including these creepy owls by Hieronymus Bosch!
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