by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on November 4, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Seven eyes look out from the ground. Two enormous ears stand among trees, while an owl occupies the hollow trunk at the centre. Hieronymus Bosch has made an ordinary landscape capable of noticing its visitors. No human figure stands in the foreground, yet the viewer encounters a place equipped with human senses.
Known as The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field, or The Wood Has Ears, the Field Has Eyes, the drawing belongs to Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett, inventory KdZ 549. The museum’s 2016 exhibition dated it around 1500–1505. A compact pen drawing, it translates a familiar warning about discretion into a landscape that needs to be read as well as seen. On the reverse, studies by Bosch and members of his workshop reveal a less ordered world of repeated figures, heads and exercises.[1][2][3]
The two sides make an unusually revealing pair. The front rewards interpretation through a carefully arranged image; the back records the practical work of drawing and learning. A Latin sentence above the forest introduces another connection between them, praising invention rather than habitual reliance on things already devised.[2]
At a Glance
- Artist, frontHieronymus Bosch
- ReverseBosch and workshop
- TitleThe Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field
- Alternative titleThe Wood Has Ears, the Field Has Eyes
- Berlin exhibition dateCirca 1500–1505
- Medium, frontPen and brown ink on paper
- Reverse studiesPen and ink; black chalk also identified in the BRCP study
- Berlin dimensions20.2 × 12.7 cm
- CollectionKupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- InventoryKdZ 549, front and reverse
Compare these works across Bosch’s career
These date ranges are estimates, not a documented year-by-year sequence. The highlighted row is the work discussed here.
Saint Jerome at Prayer
Circa 1485–1495 [4]Crucifixion with a Donor
Circa 1490–1500 (BRCP) [4]Hermit Saints Triptych
Circa 1495–1505 [4]Saint Liberata Triptych
Circa 1495–1505 [4]The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field
Circa 1500–1505 (Berlin exhibition) [5]The Haywain Triptych
1510–1516 (BRCP) [4]Contents
Annotated Details from The Wood Has Ears, the Field Has Eyes
The sheet rewards a change of scale: a short inscription at the top, an owl inside the tree and eyes spread across the foreground.
Details from THE WOOD HAS EARS, THE FIELD HAS EYES
These views isolate the inscription and the most immediately visible parts of the drawn rebus.
The inscription
The Latin line runs along the upper edge of the sheet. Its wording and the limits of what it establishes are discussed in the article.
Owl and listening trees
The owl occupies the hollow trunk. Large ears interrupt the wooded background on either side; their outsized scale makes the act of listening visible.
Eyes in the field
Seven eyes are distributed over the foreground. Their different positions draw attention across what would otherwise be an open patch of ground.
Image and detail crops: Wikimedia Commons source file (public domain reproduction).
Reading the Landscape
The large tree provides a firm vertical axis. Its roots spread into the foreground, and its bare upper branches extend towards the top of the sheet. Behind it, younger trees create a screen of foliage. The two ears flank the old trunk, making their unexpected presence part of an otherwise orderly arrangement. The invention is strange, but its placement is controlled.
The eyes work differently. They appear directly in the ground, distributed across the lower part of the image. They have lids and distinct centres, but no faces to contain them. A viewer looking down towards the roots finds that the field looks back. What first appears to be a landscape becomes a collection of encounters between the observer and things capable of observing.
Scale makes this transformation possible. An ordinary ear would disappear beside a tree; these ears are large enough to compete with trunks. The owl, too, occupies far more space than a naturalistic bird would require. Bosch adjusts proportions to make each element legible, while the repeated trees and receding ground preserve enough landscape structure for the impossible parts to belong together.
The proverb supplies a first explanation. Fields have eyes and woods have ears: even an apparently secluded place may contain witnesses. The BRCP catalogue connects the image with a warning to act discreetly rather than assuming that private conduct will remain unseen. The eyes and ears make that warning visible without requiring a crowd of concealed human spies.[2]
This is more than a verbal phrase converted into an exact diagram. The owl, other birds, fox and cockerel add relationships that the proverb does not explicitly require. They encourage the viewer to test the familiar saying against a more complicated situation. Some creatures appear alert, others exposed to danger; looking and listening do not guarantee that everyone understands what is happening.
An Owl That Resists One Meaning
The owl sits within the central hollow, facing outwards. Its stillness contrasts with the movements of the smaller birds in the branches above. The surrounding tree gives it shelter and a frame, turning a natural cavity into a conspicuous place from which to watch. Among the scattered eyes and large ears, it is the most complete observing creature.
Bosch’s owls are often interpreted as threatening, and the BRCP catalogue discusses the bird’s associations with danger and conflict. Here, however, the same authors question an exclusively negative reading. The owl may also be practising the caution recommended by the proverb: remaining sheltered, attentive and silent while others expose themselves. The drawing allows those possibilities to coexist.[2]
Berlin’s exhibition text likewise emphasised the owl’s watchfulness. That interpretation does not make it a simple emblem of abstract wisdom detached from the rest of the image. Its apparent competence depends on where it sits and how it relates to the other creatures. Shelter, stillness and an outward gaze become practical advantages within this particular wood.[3]
At the base of the trunk, the fox and cockerel offer another relationship. The cockerel approaches the hollow occupied by the fox, creating a situation whose likely outcome the viewer can anticipate. The bird’s access to a world full of eyes and ears has not necessarily made it prudent. The contrast between visible information and intelligent attention gives the proverb a sharper edge.[2]
Related creatures appear in Saint Jerome at Prayer, where an owl and a fox belong to the saint’s unsettling surroundings. The recurrence is useful for comparison, but it does not establish a dictionary in which every owl or fox always means the same thing. In the Berlin drawing, the relationships are shaped by the proverb and by the viewer’s task of deciphering it.
A Later Print Makes the Saying Explicit
A coloured Dutch woodcut dated 1546, also in Berlin, provides a helpful comparison. It gives the proverb a human participant and an accompanying text that recommends seeing, keeping silent and listening. The museum identifies the print’s maker as unknown. It is a separate work, produced decades after the approximate date assigned to Bosch’s sheet.[3][6]
The comparison shows how an image can make its instructions more or less explicit. In the print, gesture and words guide the viewer towards the moral. Bosch’s drawing leaves more work to be done. Its isolated eyes and ears prompt recognition of the saying, but the central owl and surrounding incidents prevent the recognition from exhausting the image.
The later woodcut is therefore evidence for the proverb’s visual life, rather than proof that Bosch copied a surviving print or that the print reproduces every element of his design. Its date alone rules out treating this particular impression as his model. Both works can draw upon a shared saying while giving the spectator different kinds of guidance.
The Latin Sentence above the Trees
A line of Latin runs across the top of the drawing. It criticises the habit of depending continually on existing inventions without producing anything new. The BRCP catalogue identifies the words as a quotation from the medieval educational text De disciplina scholarium, attributed to Pseudo-Boethius. The sentence was therefore not a maxim newly coined by Bosch.[2]
Placed above this inventive landscape, the words invite a further reading. The draughtsman has used an established proverb but has given it an unexpected form. The warning against mere repetition can apply to making pictures as well as to learning. In the catalogue’s interpretation, image and sentence together encourage the development of a creative mind, potentially within the setting of a workshop.[2]
The relationship is productive precisely because it is not perfectly simple. The inscription itself borrows an existing text, while praising invention; the drawing transforms a familiar saying rather than abandoning inherited material. Originality here can involve selecting and recombining what is already available. The field’s eyes and the wood’s ears remain recognisable, but their combination with the animals produces fresh questions.
Authorship of the writing should be distinguished from the meaning of the words. The BRCP’s examination found no discrepancy that required separating the Latin inscription from the drawing, and its authors argue that the draughtsman could have placed it there himself. That is their assessment of the evidence. It does not make the sentence an independently documented personal statement whose writer and circumstances are established beyond question.[2]
The name near the bottom requires a different qualification. Berlin’s exhibition catalogue material identifies Jero: Bosch as an inscription added by a later hand. It should not be described as Bosch’s autograph signature, nor used to authenticate the upper sentence. The drawing’s attribution and the histories of its two inscriptions are related questions, but they are not interchangeable.[3]
Bosch, the Wood and His City
The word bosch, meaning wood or forest, offers an obvious association with the artist’s chosen name. The BRCP catalogue develops that association through the civic imagery of ’s-Hertogenbosch. It compares the ordered trees with the city’s seal, in which a larger tree is flanked by smaller ones. Both the town and the artist can therefore enter the interpretation without appearing as a literal street view or portrait.[2]
The city-name reading has also met resistance. Reviewing an earlier study of civic tree imagery, Martine Meuwese found the proposed wordplay on ’s-Hertogenbosch unpersuasive. Her objection predates the BRCP catalogue and concerns the proposed city reference, rather than the drawing’s attribution. The seal comparison remains an interpretation to weigh beside the more immediately recognisable proverb.[7]
The comparison is a proposal about how the image works, rather than a recovered explanation supplied by Bosch. The drawing can evoke place, professional identity and an everyday proverb at the same time. Its balanced structure helps those associations coexist: a centrally placed tree is both an object in the wood and the organising form of an image with something like a heraldic presence.
Describing the sheet as a kind of artistic self-portrait is consequently metaphorical. No face hidden in the tree has to be identified as Bosch’s likeness. The suggested portrait concerns a maker who observes, invents and belongs to a particular civic and working environment. It is a reading of the drawing’s construction, not evidence for the artist’s physical appearance or a detailed account of his private thoughts.
Pen Marks and a Small Sheet of Paper
The drawing’s effects depend on differences in line. Long strokes define the trunk and branches; short marks accumulate into foliage; closely placed lines darken the hollow around the owl. Open paper gives the foreground room to breathe, making the individual eyes conspicuous. Bosch creates a strong central presence without covering the sheet in continuous shading.
The main trunk is especially active. Its edges twist as it rises, while internal lines follow changes of surface and direction. The younger trees have a finer, more repetitive texture. That contrast makes age and density visible through handling, without requiring colour to distinguish one part of the wood from another.
The dimensions vary slightly between records. Berlin gives 20.2 × 12.7 centimetres, while the BRCP records a height of 20.5 centimetres and a width varying between 13 and 12.7. These small differences should be kept with their sources rather than converted into a supposedly exact new measurement. Both describe a modest sheet whose impact depends on concentrated invention.[1][2]
The drawing is also more than preparation for a known painting. Its centred design, proverb and inscription provide a sustained subject in their own right. That independence does not mean the sheet stayed outside practical workshop use. Turning it over reveals how a carefully conceived image and exercises in making could occupy the same piece of paper.
The Workshop on the Reverse
The reverse contains figures, heads, architecture, animals and repeated details. A beggar seen obliquely from behind carries a bowl; a little dog appears above his head. Other studies occupy the spaces around them. Instead of the front’s clear vertical organisation, the reverse asks the viewer to move among fragments with different orientations and degrees of completion.[2][3]
The BRCP attributes the beggar and probably the small dog to Bosch. It assigns several repetitions and additions to other hands, most likely assistants in the workshop. Berlin likewise catalogues the reverse under Bosch and workshop. This is not a case in which every pen mark on a sheet accepted as Bosch’s must automatically belong to him.[2][3]
Repetition is visible at several scales. Dogs recur; a head is tried again; the begging bowl appears as a separate form. These studies suggest people learning through close attention to a model, isolating a difficult feature or adapting something already drawn. They provide a practical counterpart to the front’s sentence about invention, though the exact occasion and identities of the participants remain unknown.
Technical documentation helps distinguish the marks. The catalogue reports different responses to infrared imaging: some ink becomes much less visible, while other additions remain clear. It also identifies two heads in black chalk. Where one drawing crosses another, the overlap supplies evidence for a sequence of work. Differences of material and order support the discussion of several hands without giving those assistants names.[2]
Some exercises combine existing elements into another creature. The catalogue compares related motifs on a separate model sheet in Oxford, treating them as evidence for the circulation and adaptation of Bosch’s inventions. The Berlin reverse can thus illuminate a process that lies between straightforward copying and completely independent design. Learning to repeat a form and learning to transform it need not be opposing activities.
What the Sheet Preserves
Berlin’s record places the sheet in the collection’s old holdings, and the BRCP gives acquisition before 1879. That establishes a nineteenth-century limit in its modern history without recovering its first owner or original audience. Neither the proverb nor the workshop exercises supply a documented commission.[2]
The drawing preserves something more tangible than a complete biography of its maker: a controlled composition on one side and working relationships on the other. The front makes observation into a subject; the reverse records people observing and reworking drawn forms. Together they make it an especially useful work within Bosch’s drawings.
Return to the owl after looking at the reverse. Its stillness now belongs beside the restless activity of the sheet’s other side. The viewer has had to compare, separate and reconsider what first seemed easy to recognise. A familiar proverb becomes a drawing that rewards the very attention it depicts.
Artworks and related attributions
Browse paintings, drawings and related attributions. Records group triptychs, fragments and two-sided sheets where appropriate. Dates follow the cited museum records or catalogue headings and are generally estimates. Rows marked “2016 catalogue” report that publication’s attribution and collection information; these are dated opinions, rather than a claim that every work is an accepted autograph Bosch.
| Name | Date | Medium, attribution and collection |
|---|---|---|
| A Crossbowman | Second half of the sixteenth century | Oil on oak panel · Copy after Hieronymus Bosch · Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid · P002695 Source 1. Source 2. |
| A Woman Spinning and an Old Woman | Museum estimates: about 1480–1490 for the women and 1500–1505 for the reverse; the precise chronology is disputed | Pen and brown and grey ink on the front; pen and brown ink on the reverse · Hieronymus Bosch · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam · N 190 recto and verso (PK) Source 1. Source 2. |
| Adoration of the Child in Cologne | Second half of the sixteenth century | Oil on oak panel · Imitator of Hieronymus Bosch, in the city collection record · Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne · WRM 0474 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Adoration of the Magi in Philadelphia | Early sixteenth century in the museum record; around 1495–1520 in the BRCP catalogue | Oil on oak panel · Hieronymus Bosch in the museum record; workshop of Bosch in the 2016 BRCP catalogue · Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917 · 1321; museum object 103592 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Adoration of the Magi — New York | c.1470–1480 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on oak · Metropolitan Museum 13.26 2016 catalogue. |
| Adoration of the Magi — Prado triptych | c.1494 | Oil on oak; grisaille exterior · Bosch · Prado P002048 Object source. |
| Adoration of the Magi — three associated fragments | c.1515–1535 | 2016 catalogue: Follower of Bosch · Two Shepherds / Retinue in Philadelphia; associated Adoration in private collection in 2016 2016 catalogue. |
| Ascent of the Blessed — Venice | c.1505–1515 | Oil on panel · Bosch · Gallerie dell’Accademia; Visions of the Hereafter Object source. |
| Battle of the Birds and Mammals | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; pen and brown ink · Berlin KdZ 14715 2016 catalogue. |
| Beggars and Musicians | Around 1530–1540 | Ink and wash on paper · Unknown follower of Hieronymus Bosch · Albertina, Vienna · 7798 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Christ Carrying the Cross Drawing | Around 1470 in the museum catalogue | Black chalk or charcoal, pen and brush in brown ink, white corrections · Anonymous, workshop of Rogier van der Weyden · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam · N 81 recto and verso (PK) Source 1. Source 2. |
| Christ Carrying the Cross in Vienna | Around 1490–1510 in the current KHM record and BRCP catalogue | Oil on oak, painted on both sides · Hieronymus Bosch; possible workshop involvement in the Passion side discussed by the BRCP · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna · Gemäldegalerie, GG 6429 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Christ Carrying the Cross — El Escorial | c.1495–1505 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on oak · Patrimonio Nacional 10014739 2016 catalogue. |
| Christ Carrying the Cross — Ghent | c.1510–1516 (museum) | Oil on panel · Bosch in museum listing; authorship disputed · MSK Ghent 1902-H Object source. |
| Christ Mocked — London | c.1510 | Oil on wood · Bosch · National Gallery NG4744 Object source. |
| Concert in the Egg, After Hieronymus Bosch | Around 1561; third quarter of the sixteenth century | Oil on canvas · Anonymous, after Hieronymus Bosch · Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille · P 816 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Conjurer / Comical Concert — Louvre drawing | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch (recto), follower (concert verso) · Pen and brown ink · Louvre INV 19197 2016 catalogue. |
| Conjurer / Cross-bearing and beggars — Liège sheet | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch (verso), follower (recto) · Pen and brown ink · Album d’Arenberg 534 2016 catalogue. |
| Crowning with Thorns — El Escorial | c.1530–1540 | 2016 catalogue: Follower of Bosch; oil on oak · Patrimonio Nacional 10014743 2016 catalogue. |
| Crucifixion with a Donor | Circa 1495–1505; Circa 1490–1500 | Oil on oak panel · Hieronymus Bosch · Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels · 6639 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Death and the Miser Drawing | Not securely established; probably made after the painting | Pen and brush, dark ink and white highlights on prepared paper · Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch in the BRCP catalogue; alternatives recorded by the Louvre · Musée du Louvre, Department of Prints and Drawings, Paris · RF 6947, Recto Source 1. Source 2. |
| Death and the Miser — Washington | c.1485/1490 (NGA) | Oil on panel · Bosch · National Gallery of Art 1952.5.33 Object source. |
| Ecce Homo Triptych — Boston | c.1495–1500; wings c.1500/1503 | 2016 catalogue: Workshop of Bosch; oil on oak · Museum of Fine Arts Boston; several production phases 2016 catalogue. |
| Ecce Homo — Frankfurt | c.1490 | Mixed technique on oak · Bosch · Städel 1577 Object source. |
| Fall of the Damned — Venice | c.1505–1515 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on panel · Visions of the Hereafter · Venice 2016 catalogue. |
| Garden of Earthly Delights | 1490–1500 (Prado) | Oil on oak; grisaille exterior · Bosch · Prado; triptych Object source. |
| Gluttony and Lust / Allegory of Intemperance — Yale fragment | c.1500–1510 (group dating) | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on oak · Yale 1959.15.22; fragment associated with Ship of Fools 2016 catalogue. |
| Group of Ten Spectators, a Follower of Bosch | Around 1510–1540 in the current museum record | Pen and two brown inks on paper, with a brown framing line · Follower of Hieronymus Bosch in the Morgan record; Bosch in the BRCP catalogue · Morgan Library & Museum, New York · I, 112 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Head of an Old Woman | About 1500 | Oil on panel · Attributed to Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam · 2439 (OK) Source 1. Source 2. |
| Hell and the Flood — Rotterdam panels | Around 1515 in the museum records; around 1510–1520 in the BRCP catalogue | Oil on oak panels · Jheronimus Bosch in the museum records; workshop of Bosch in the BRCP catalogue · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Source 1. Source 2. |
| Hermit Saints Triptych | Circa 1495–1505 | Oil on oak panels · Hieronymus Bosch · Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice · 2044 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Infernal Landscape | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; pen and brown ink, red accent · Private collection in 2016 2016 catalogue. |
| Infernal Scene with Anvil / Monster Studies | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; attribution debated in entry · Pen and brown ink · Berlin KdZ 548 2016 catalogue. |
| Infernal Scene with Tree-Man / Standing Man | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Workshop of Bosch; pen and brown ink · Dresden C 1875; historical reverse title includes a proposed prophet 2016 catalogue. |
| Job Triptych — Bruges | c.1510–1520 | 2016 catalogue: Workshop of Bosch; oil on oak · Groeningemuseum / Hoeke loan in 2016 2016 catalogue. |
| Last Judgement — Bruges triptych | c.1495–1505 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on oak · Groeningemuseum 2016 catalogue. |
| Last Judgement — Munich fragment | c.1530–1540 | 2016 catalogue: Follower of Bosch; oil on oak · Alte Pinakothek 5752 2016 catalogue. |
| Last Judgement — Vienna triptych | c.1500–1505 (BRCP 2016) | Oil on oak · Bosch and workshop (BRCP 2016) · Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 2016 catalogue. |
| Man in a Basket and Comic Figures | Around 1500–1515 in the museum record | Pen and brown ink on paper; the reverse is catalogued as iron-gall ink · Hieronymus Bosch in the current Albertina record; attribution has been debated · Albertina, Vienna · 7797 recto and verso Source 1. Source 2. |
| Man Seen from Behind | About 1550–1569; About 1565–1570 | Traces of black chalk, pen and brush in light brown ink · Anonymous, circle of Pieter Bruegel the Elder · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Source 1. Source 2. |
| Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross | About 1440 | Brush in grey and black · Unknown, possibly Netherlandish · Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden · C 815 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Model Sheet with ‘Witches’ | Disputed; proposals depend on the attribution | Pen and brown ink; the BRCP also records underlying black chalk · Hieronymus Bosch; follower attributions also recorded · Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Paris · INV 19721 recto Source 1. Source 2. |
| Peasant and Three Bust-Length Figures | 1401–1500 | Brown pen over a black preliminary drawing · Attributed to the Master of the Drapery Studies; Bosch circle also recorded · Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin · KdZ 777 Source 1. Source 2. |
| River to Hell — Venice | c.1505–1515 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on panel · Visions of the Hereafter · Venice 2016 catalogue. |
| Saint Anthony and a Concert in an Egg | Around 1510–1525 in the museum’s 2016–17 exhibition texts | Pen in light and dark brown inks · Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch; underlying monsters: Bosch (BRCP), possibly Bosch (exhibition text) · Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin · KdZ 711 recto and verso Source 1. Source 2. |
| Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child | c.1500; 1490–1505 in restoration material | Oil on panel · Bosch · Boijmans St 26 Object source. |
| Saint James and Hermogenes | About 1551–1575 in the KIK-IRPA catalogue | Oil on wood, painted on both sides · Anonymous follower of Hieronymus Bosch · Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes · P.46.1.44; older number 176 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Saint Jerome at Prayer | Circa 1485–1495 | Oil on oak panel · Hieronymus Bosch · Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent · 1908-H Source 1. Source 2. |
| Saint John on Patmos / Passion Scenes | c.1495–1505; estimates vary | Oil on oak · Bosch · Gemäldegalerie Berlin 1647A Object source. |
| Saint John the Baptist in Meditation | Late 15th century; c.1485–1510 (Prado exhibition) | Oil on panel · Bosch · Lázaro Galdiano 8155 Object source. |
| Saint Liberata Triptych | Circa 1495–1505 | Oil on oak panels · Hieronymus Bosch · Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice · 2045 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things | 1505–1510 (Prado) | Oil on poplar · Bosch (Prado); workshop/follower disputed · Prado Object source. |
| Ship of Fools — Louvre painting | 1475–1500 (record); c.1505–1515 (exhibition) | Oil on oak · Bosch · Louvre RF 2218; fragment Object source. |
| Ship of Fools — Louvre workshop drawing | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Workshop of Bosch · Pen, brush, grey-brown ink and white highlights on prepared paper · Louvre RF 3714 2016 catalogue. |
| Studies of Monsters | About 1530–1550, according to the current Ashmolean record | Pen and brown ink on laid paper, both faces · Anonymous follower of Hieronymus Bosch · Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford · WA1863.155 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Studies of Saint Anthony and Monsters | No execution date specified in the current Louvre records | Pen and brown ink on paper · Bosch listed; reverse questioned by Louvre; BRCP accepts both faces · Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Paris · INV 20871 recto and verso Source 1. Source 2. |
| Temptation of Saint Anthony — Kansas City fragment | c.1500–1510 | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; oil on oak · Nelson-Atkins 35–22 2016 catalogue. |
| Temptation of Saint Anthony — Lisbon triptych | c.1500 | Oil on oak · Bosch · Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga 1498 Pint Museum. |
| Temptation of Saint Anthony — Prado panel | c.1530–1540 | 2016 catalogue: Follower of Bosch (2016 opinion); oil on oak · Prado P002049 2016 catalogue. |
| Terrestrial Paradise | Approximately 1505–1515 | Oil on oak panel · Hieronymus Bosch · Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Burning Ship Drawing | 1500–1520 | Pen and iron gall ink on paper · Attributed to Hieronymus Bosch · Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Graphic Collection · HZ-2554; numbered 2554 in the BRCP catalogue Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Comical Barber Scene | About 1550–1580, according to the British Museum | Pen and brown ink, grey and brown wash, over black chalk · Anonymous follower, after Hieronymus Bosch · British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, London · 1854,0628.46 Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Conjuror, After Hieronymus Bosch | Probably after 1525; around 1530–1540 in the BRCP technical report | Oil on oak panel · Anonymous follower of Hieronymus Bosch · Musée Ducastel-Vera, Saint-Germain-en-Laye · 872.1.87 Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Cure of Folly / Extraction of the Stone of Madness | 1501–1505 (Prado) | Oil on oak · Bosch (Prado); workshop/follower disputed · Prado P002056 Object source. |
| The Entombment Drawing | About 1505–1515, current museum record | Brush and black and grey ink, with grey wash, over black chalk · Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch; drawn by the Master of the Prado Haywain Triptych; Hieronymus Bosch, argued by the BRCP in 2016 · British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, London · 1952,0405.9 Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Gathering of the Birds | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; pen and brown ink · Berlin KdZ 13136 2016 catalogue. |
| The Haywain — Prado triptych | 1510–1516 (BRCP 2016) | Oil on oak · Bosch (BRCP 2016) · Prado; separate Escorial version exists 2016 catalogue. |
| The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field | Circa 1500–1505 | Pen and brown ink on paper · Hieronymus Bosch; reverse: Bosch and workshop · Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin · KdZ 549, front and reverse Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Owl’s Nest — Rotterdam | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch; pen and brown ink · Boijmans N 175 2016 catalogue. |
| The Passion Triptych in Valencia | Workshop of Bosch, about 1510–1520; Follower of Bosch; centre about 1530–1540, wings about 1540–1550 | Oil and gold on oak panels · Workshop of Bosch, about 1510–1520; Follower of Bosch; centre about 1530–1540, wings about 1540–1550 · Museu de Belles Arts de València Source 1. Source 2. |
| The Pedlar / Wayfarer — Rotterdam | c.1500 (museum) | Oil on panel · Bosch · Boijmans 1079 (OK); rejoined exterior Object source. |
| The Tree-Man — Vienna drawing | c.1505 | Pen and brown ink · Bosch · Albertina, Vienna Object source. |
| The Wedding at Cana, After Hieronymus Bosch | Approximately 1560 in the current museum record | Oil on panel, 93 cm high × 72 cm wide · Anonymous, after Hieronymus Bosch · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, St 25 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Two Fantastical Creatures — Berlin KdZ 550 | Around 1505–1515 in the museum’s 2016 exhibition text | Pen in brown ink on reddish prepared laid paper · Hieronymus Bosch · Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin · KdZ 550, recto and verso Source 1. Source 2. |
| Two Figures Wearing Mitres | About 1480 | Oil on panel · Anonymous (Boijmans); Bosch circle (RKD) · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam · 1177 (OK) Source 1. Source 2. |
| Two Men and the Temptation of Eve | About 1505–1515 in the Prado’s 2016 exhibition guide | Pen and grey-brown ink on paper · Hieronymus Bosch in the 2016 catalogues discussed here · Private collection, as recorded in 2016 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Two Men Fighting | Not specified in the current Louvre record | Pen and brown ink · In the manner of Hieronymus Bosch · Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Paris · INV 20660 recto; formerly NIII 8896 and MA 8400 Source 1. Source 2. |
| Two Men — Berlin KdZ 5210 | Not specified in catalogue heading | 2016 catalogue: Bosch questioned · Pen, brush, ink, chalk and white highlights · Berlin KdZ 5210; historical title Two Oriental Men 2016 catalogue. |
| Two Monsters — Berlin KdZ 547 | Approximately 1500–1510 in Berlin's 2016 exhibition catalogue; an estimated range | Pen and brown ink on paper · Hieronymus Bosch · Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin · KdZ 547, drawn on both sides Source 1. Source 2. |
Frequently Asked Questions
It refers to a proverb warning that apparently private conduct may be observed: the field has eyes and the wood has ears. Bosch turns the saying into an inventive landscape.[2]
Berlin identifies the lower Jero: Bosch inscription as a later addition. It should not be called Bosch’s autograph signature or used to authenticate the Latin sentence above.[3]
Discussion
Read the proverb through the animals and landscape, then consider the workshop activity on the reverse.
Reader Insights
Which do you notice first: the owl, the ears or the eyes in the ground?
Does the owl look protected, threatening or both? Which marks support your reading?
How do the repeated studies on the reverse change your understanding of the sentence about invention?
Join the Conversation
Share a detail, comparison or question about The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field below.
References
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Das Feld hat Augen, der Wald hat Ohren, KdZ 549. View source.
- Bosch Research and Conservation Project, Catalogue Raisonné (2016), catalogue 37, pp. 498–505. View source.
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2016 exhibition worklist and wall texts, p. 3. View source.
- BRCP Catalogue Raisonné (2016), object dates in catalogues 1, 2, 8, 15 and 20; catalogue 20 object metadata only for the Haywain comparison. View source
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2016 exhibition wall texts, p. 3: approximate date of KdZ 549. View source
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, anonymous coloured woodcut, 1546, inventory 145-1896. View source.
- Martine Meuwese, “Door de bomen het bos zien,” Queeste 10 (2003), pp. 87–91. View source.
