Number 12. The Conjurer, by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. This is not one of Bosch's best-known paintings,but it is very interesting nevertheless. The painting in particular shows how people are deceived and tricked by illusion.
The painting shows a magician, the conjurer, at a fair or matket of some kind. The fair could have been in any town in Europe in the 1500s, there were many of them. The main character is the conjurer. He is holding up a small object, perhaps a pearl. It may be a fake pearl, but he has the audience's attention. The spectator is very interested and is leaning forward. Misled by the magician, he does not realise that a person, who must be the magician's asssistant, is reaching into his purse to take his money.
Bosch shows the magician as an intelligent person through the owl, which you can see peeping out of his bag.
There is a women next to the magician's assistant. She is showing with her hand that true miracles are a matter of the heart, not a cheap trick. At the back of the group of people stands a man dressed in black. He may understand what is really happening, but he is happy to remain an observer.
The figure of the conjurer reappears in other painting by Bosch, and is representative of the tension between magic and the real word.