No Fear Friday: Cats

Welcome to No Fear Friday, where I good-natured-ly make fun of bad artwork from the Middle Ages, to hopefully inspire those interested in the scribal arts to give it a try. This week:

House Cats 

To be differentiated from other types of felines such as lions... because goodness is that going to be it's own article later.

Let me get started by admitting that there are plenty of fairly decent medieval illustrations of the humble house cat.  Domesticated cats are ubiquitous and everyone knew what they looked like. Monks kept them as pets, as the poem 'Pangur Ban' and plenty of examples of cats getting in way of scribal work can attest:

15th Century Manuscript, Some things never change

But this isn't an article series on good medieval artwork. And really, that's kind of inspiring. If everyone knew what cats looked like and there are still this many examples of them being illustrated poorly... well that just proves my point doesn't it? If these cats were deemed good enough to grace the pages of medieval manuscripts, then any cat you can draw is good enough for an SCA scroll.

Detail from 'The Annunciation' , oil painting, Circa1520 , Jan de Beer

Let's start with some high art. This poor little guy's face is just all wrong. So wrong that I can't even begin to make sense over what exactly is happening here. Definitely the ears are too funnel- like. The eyes are too small and too far forward... and the muzzle? It's really... more like a rat isn't it? Some unholy combination of a cat with a mouse head.

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 88, Folio 95r.

Like, seriously, we are drawing cats here right? Not just super large mutant cannibal rats eating their own? And these really are cats, I double checked the attribution just to make sure.

France 1454. Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms 5088 réserve, fol. 257r

I get it, drawing animal muzzles properly is hard... but is the answer really to just get rid of the muzzle entirely and give the poor kitty a flat face? With a human nose? And why does he have eyebrows? This isn't a cat, this is a creature from the island of Dr. Moreau.

 ca. 1475-1482 (UB Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 84, fol. 232v)

Speaking of terrifying, this illustration is really trying to buy into that whole 'cats + evil witches' mythos. Sure he's doing his job and catching that rat, but I have no confidence that he's not going to come for my face next. And as if it doesn't already look demonic enough, what is with the bare scaly rat tail?

Scheibler'sches Wappenbuch Süddeutschland, um 1450 - 17. and
Roman de Renart, France ca. 1300-1350 (BnF, Français 12584, fol. 51v)

Ok, to counteract that lets looks at these two adorable little bleps. Both illustrations still have their problems, but what cat picture isn't improved by a cute little tongue sticking out?

So I think the problems with drawing medieval cats mostly fall into two categories. You have cats that have rat/mouse like features and/or tails:

Lectionary, Cambrai ca. 1266 (Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 190, fol. 72r) and
‘The Maastricht Hours’, Liège 14th century BL, Stowe 17, fol. 129v

The Fables of Bidpai in German Translation, Wurtenburg, c.1480

And you have cats with flat faces and disturbingly human features and expressions:

1478, Penn Libraries Fol. 72v, LJS 27 and Rothschild Manuscript c. 1500–20

 Take the ears and body off of that first cat and he could stand in for any confused grandpa with a bushy beard. And I'm pretty sure that second cat is the one which kicked off the entire 'Cheshire cat grin' thing.

France after 1500, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms 654, fol. 5r and British Library, Sloane MS 1975, Folio 86v

Flat human face with almost no nose, meet flat human face with incredibly large human nose. I think the white cat is impressed and also a bit jealous.

BnF, Latin 1178, 15thc. and Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1460

And while we're at it, why stop at giving cats human faces when we can also do some first-rate anthropomorphizing? Not that people haven't been dressing their cats up in ridiculous clothes for centuries anyway. And I'll have you know that there are dozens of pictures of cats playing the fiddle, but I went the extra mile to give you a cat playing bagpipes. You are welcome.

Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 D 7, Folio 37v and Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 988, fol. 124r

How about a couple of cat doodles that barely even look like cats?

And what post about cats would be complete without cats as they always have been, without dignity:

Book of hours, Lyon, ca. 1505-1510 and
2 cats from the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy, ca. 1420-1425

Book of Hours France, ca. 1480

I almost feel like I should apologize for this last one. It's just so over done and egregious. It's a great example of bad art because of how small and disjointed the hind legs are but... really? We get it, cats lick their butts and it is gross, but did you really have to illustrate the butthole that big and brown?

And, true to form, I have left the best of the worst for last. I don't have the attribution for this one, despite lots of looking, so if anyone does have the attribution please, please, please let me know because I'd love to know which century this gem is from:

Lips. IT HAS LIPS.

Also, kinda reminds me of this:

Only less cute and endearing.

So, what is your favorite medieval cat? There are so many I didn't get a chance to include, but if I missed a particularly good/bad one, please share!

Next post in the series: TBD

Previous post in the Series: Bats!