Sunday, January 14, 2018

Cats in Art: The Geese of the Capitol (Motte)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in ArtI am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

The bride and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in France where we were privileged to see both the Louvre and Orsay Museums.  Of the two, the Orsay was much better--less crowded, could get closer to the paintings, more cats.


This is the second of a pair of posts on the art of Paul-Henri Motte.


Image credit Wikimedia CommonsThe Geese of the Capitol, Henri-Paul Motte, 1889, medium, size, and ownership unspecified.

And the kitty close-up, very reminiscent of the lion in The Fiancee of Belus featured here a couple of weeks ago:



Wikimedia Commons tells us this:


While the Roman soldiers and watch dogs slept, Juno's sacred geese on the Capitol warned Rome of the Gallic attack in 390 BC.

And that terse statement is about all I could ascertain about this painting.  It is a fascinating work, true to Mott's inclination towards historical realism in his paintings.

The poor lion seems revulsed by the water spouting forth from its mouth.  Can't say that I blame him.


[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

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