Image credit ABC Gallery, here [click to enlarge]. The Cat's Paw, Sir Edwin Landseer,
1824, oil on canvas, 32" x 29", private collection.
This painting, marked by subtle cruelty... shows a monkey trying to burn the cat's paw by holding it over a brazier. Along with the hapless protagonist, the work includes other cats, observing the situation with interest and concern.
The morals of the story: Monkeys can be a**holes. Plus cats and monkeys don't mix. Better stick with the kitties.
Zuffi misses the point. The monkey isn't trying to burn the cat; he's trying to get the chestnuts without burning his own hand, and using the cat as a tool to do it. Landseer is alluding the term cat's-paw, already well established by the time he painted this. (Reportedly this behaviour was observed in a monkey belonging to Pope Julius II.)
ReplyDeleteThat explanation is marginally better, I guess, but the monkey is still being cruel.
Delete