‘Diana's night’ by Jan Fabre belongs to the permanent collection of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. A snowy owl hangs on eye level against the back wall in the centre of the room. On the left and right wall hangs Diana, goddess of the hunt, a painting by Pieter Paul Rubens. The ceiling is a dome of feathers and owl heads. The unmoving eyes of the owls never move away from the spectator. The eyes do not belong to an animal but to a person. The Cabinet Rubens - Fabre is a small, intimate room in the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The paintings are called ‘Satyrs observing Diana’s sleeping nymphs' and 'Diana and her nymphs preparing for the hunt'. The two great Antwerp masters, Rubens and Breughel, worked together for these two pieces. Fabre has produced a contemporary translation of an animal mythology. Throughout history owls have been used as symbols. The long-eared owl is a warning against overestimating oneself, the spotted eagle owl and the snowy owl are portents of death, the barn owl provides spiritual guidance, and the short-eared owl is the defender of vulnerability. The birds are guarding Diana's final resting place. Together they form a night-time sky, their eyes stars in the ceiling. Fabre renews and murders the mythology. The symbols have been beheaded, victims of the guillotine of the Enlightenment. Today they are used as masks in a carnival in which we escape.