Cats in Art: Wildcat Hunt Tapestry (Stradano)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I am using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is the third in a series of the art of Giovanni Stradano.

Image credit CODART, Wildcat Hunt Tapestry, Giovanni Stradano, tapestry (size information unavailable), held by Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.

The CODART page gives some background:

Cosimo I Medici employed Stradanus as designer for tapestries in the Arazzeria Medicea. The tapestries with hunting scenes, inspired by antique literature of Plini, Homer and Herodotos but also by hunting practice at the Florentine court, were destined for the villa at Poggio a Caiano and grew out to be a major success. As a consequence of their popularity, these Hunts were translated in prints; this marks the beginning of Stradanus’ activity as designer of prints. In collaboration with the renowned printmakers in Antwerp, Hieronymus Cock and the Galle family, Stradanus produced a vast amount of prints in series with profane and religious subjects. Through the combination of his knowledge and insight in the courtly Florentine and Italian culture and his contacts with the internationally oriented engravers and editors in Antwerp, Stradanus played an important role in the history of the art of printmaking.

Now this for me is a very disturbing image: the hunting of cats.  For sport.  How sick is that?

For example, below is a close up of what's up the tree in the center: a pair of small kitties (sorry for the distortion and fuzziness):

Looking around the whole image, you'll see that the cats are seemingly all house cats, or at the most bobcats.  No lions or other big cats, just rather small ones. 

Which renders the macho hunting thereof rather, well, very unmacho.

Cats in Art: The Meeting of Dante and Virgil (Stradano)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I am using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is the second in my series featuring the art of Giovanni Stradano.

Image credit Arts Connected, The Meeting of Dante and Virgil, Giovanni Stradano, 1546-49, tapestry, 207" x 185", held by Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN.

Arts Connected provides some background:

The subject of the tapestry, the meeting of Dante and Virgil, reflects the renewed interest in Dante's work which occurred during the sixteenth century. In the episode illustrated, Dante has become lost in the Wood of Error, where he is confronted by three symbolic animals which menace his approach to the Holy Hill where Virgil waits to guide him through Hell and Purgatory. 

And here's a close up of the three animals that are blocking Dante's way.  Of course, two of the three are kitties...big, possibly dangerous kitties:

But as I look at the close-up of the cheetah, lion, and the dog-like animal, I just don't get a feeling of true menace or danger.  It's almost as though the three critters are pets or at least following along. Dante has stopped and they--seemingly fixated on his eyes--are just waiting to see where he is heading next.

Cats in Art: The Alchemist's Laboratory (Stradano)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I am using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.  

Image credit Web Gallery of Art, The Alchemist's Laboratory, Giovanni Stradano (or Stradanus), 1570, oil on canvas (or slate), 46" x 29", held by the Studio of Francesco I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

Zuffi's analysis: 

In a workshop bursting with stoves, alembics, pots, and instruments, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco I, dressed an an alchemist, is busily stirring a green liquid in a pan on the stove.  Conspicuous at the very center of this crowded composition is an enormous, crouching cat, observing the scene intently with dilated pupils: no other animal could have represented the "alchemical value" of the experiment.  The epitome of a nocturnal creature, the cat was associated with such experiments, traditionally conducted at night in collusion with the moon, which appeared to have an influence on the animal's power of sight.  Whereas for the Egyptians the cat represented the moon and philosophical Mercury, alchemists appropriated the cat as a symbol of the experiment itself.

I like this kitty.  Tucked away yet central to the image, Stradano captures so well the cat's facial expression of watchful interest, with an overtone of "I could be ready to bolt if I have to."  The cat thinks it's in charge, because no insecure kitty would hang around in the midst of all that action in the lab.

Note that Zuffi and the image info on the Web Gallery of Art differ in a couple things: he spells the name "Stradano" vice "Stradanus" (although that may be just a trivial variation in the Italian language).  Also Zuffi states that the substrate is canvas vice slate.  

Minor differences, to be sure, but these point out what I have found these past few years researching my Cats in Art series: there is no single authoritative source for art information.  

For example, artists often did not title their works, leaving others to assign names that frequently differed; many artists did multiple versions of the same subject, all with the same title; and many books or web sites that purport to be "The Complete Works of xxxxx" have big holes in them.  You get the idea--at times it's kinda like detective work.

But fun detective work!