I am more of a dog person myself, but I couldn’t resist the fascinating and amusing article by Marina Kochetkova in the DailyArt online magazine, which looks at cats, some hidden and some non-so-hidden, in paintings by famous artists.
Above, for example is Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Catalogue of Human Folly¸ packed with dozens of proverbs and popular sayings and reflecting on the foolishness of humankind. Can you spot the cat? Here it is:
This man is trying to fit a bell on the cat, a process for which he has dressed himself in a suit of armour, even though the cat looks friendly enough. The man looks ridiculous, but the point of the images is that that it is folly to put a bell on a cat. Marina writes: “Once fitted with a bell, the cat will announce its presence. It can no longer catch mice, thus bringing loss and misfortune to its owners. Therefore, such an undertaking makes no sense. Here Bruegel warns us against taking risky and vain actions. At the same time, he condemns cowards who need to arm themselves to become more courageous.â€
Rather more fun are Paul Klee’s cats, which he loved and depicted in more than 50 of his paintings. Below is his Zoological Garden.
Marina writes: “The geometrical shapes of the colourful zoo represent the artificial world, which fluctuates towards abstraction. Still, we can recognize windows, buildings, and a church.
“The cat has to navigate through the human world. His head appears too big for his torso and he is attentively looking out at us. At the same time, he is being watched by the eye of God in the upper half of the painting. The cat in stuck between the world of abstraction and representation.â€
As well as these felines you can see cats by Renoir, Manet, Antonello da Messina and Bosch in the article.
Just click here for a fun read — and a fun listen, too, because the magazine has included Rossini’s famous Comic Duet for Two Cats. Sing along by clicking here. The lyrics are: “Meow, meow, meow, meow…â€
You’ll see plenty of cats in the towns and villages we visit during our creative weeks, including this hopeful one by the fish stall in the Tuesday market in the nearby mediaeval walled town of Fivizzano.
Come and join us!