Cats in Art: Peasant Woman With a Cat

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I 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.

Today is the third of 4 posts on the cat art of David III Ryckaert, plus a personal note at the end.

Image credit The Hermitage Museum, Peasant Woman With a Cat, David III Ryckaert, ca 1640, 11" x 14", oil on canvas (transferred from panel), held by The State Hermitage Museum, At. Petersburg, Russia.

 And the kitty close-up:

From The Hermitage website:

David Ryckaert III was a follower of the celebrated master of genre painting Adriaen Brouwer. The Hermitage's pair of paintings by Ryckaert owe both their subject and their composition to works by Brouwer: Peasant Woman with a Cat to Brouwer's Woman with a Cat. In the Hermitage painting Ryckaert added amusing details: the old woman is feeding porridge on a spoon to the cat that is wrapped in a blanket like an infant. The painting Peasant with a Dog derives from Brouwer's work Good Friends, which also depicts a peasant with a dog. In Ryckaert's canvas, however, the subject is expanded with the motif of training the animal: the elderly man is holding the little dog by the paw and giving it the command "Sit!". David Ryckaert III's genre scenes have at the same time a hidden metaphorical meaning. The painting of Peasant with a Dog can be interpreted as an "allegory of the sense of touch" and its companion piece as an "allegory of taste".

So....never knew how much kitties loved oatmeal.  The poor cat looks positively stricken.  Oh, the indignities and price they pay for domesticity!

On an unrelated note, the origins of this blog were in ultrarunning, then I began to mix in some politics and philosophy, then the last couple of years it's been exclusively dedicated to Cats in Art.  People change, I've changed, and what was once important has less importance now.

But I did want to note a particular milestone that I had yesterday: I've satisfied a promise I made to myself some 29 years ago, in 1989. 

My 66 year old dad died of congestive heart failure that spring, when I was gearing up for the Pittsburgh Marathon.  Dad's health had been poor for years due to diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.  At the funeral I told myself that I would still be running marathons when I was that age. Well, having just turned 66, it was time to put up or shut up. 

Yesterday’s Western Maryland Rail Trail Marathon in Hancock MD went very well for me. Course was 6.5 miles, out-and-back on a rail trail, so back to the start was 13. Then we did it again...so all in all we covered the same segment 4 times to yield the marathon distance of 26 miles. It was wooded and pretty, so there was no boredom factor. 

I ran the first 3 legs continuously but slowly at around 11 min pace. Then as I tired out on the final segment I mixed in a 4 minute walking break at each mile mark. 

Finish time was 5:22, so it's obvious that my speed is nothing to write home about (my personal best is 3:26).

So, a promise made and fulfilled, and a fitting tribute to my father.

I Know We Run Beyond 26.2 Miles, But This is Incredible!

The new world's record in the marathon (men's) is now 2:02:57,  just set in Berlin this weekend.  

Wanna feel like a wimp?  This is 4:41 pace, people!

I've blogged about this before, but some years back I was running laps overnight at an American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  I had decided in advance to run 100 laps, and so I executed that plan. I ran well and was relatively fresh when I hit my 100 lap goal, which equated to 25 miles. 

I wasn't spent or burnt out, I simply had no interest or desire to add another 1.2 miles so I could call it a marathon.  I suppose that was the moment when I truly became an Ultrarunner.

Fences, Gettysburg...and Ultrarunning

From Issue 48 of The Gettysburg Magazine* (link here), an article entitled Gettysburg's Small Occurrences: The Story Behind Gettysburg's Ubiquitous Farm Fences.  I will never again just think of the fences at Gettysburg as a routine feature of the landscape.

From a participant 150 years ago:

The time it took to climb to the top of the fence seemed to me an age of suspense.  It was not a leaping over; it was rather an insensible tumbling to the ground in the nervous hope of escaping the thickening missiles that buried themselves in falling victims, in the ground, and in the fence, against which they rattled with the distinctness of large rain drops pattering on a roof.

Way back in 1980, I ran my first marathon, at Gettysburg.  I finished in 4:00 and a few seconds, but I was not bummed out at barely missing the 4 hour barrier.  I had run well, I had stopped to help a runner in distress, and when I crossed the finish line I breathlessly told the bride "There is no wall!"

I could say that because my  sole goal that day was to finish my first marathon comfortably and with something left--no death marches for me.  In truth and in hindsight I was overtrained and held back during the race, but that was a better strategy than the alternative that bites so many first time marathoners.

Back then the philosophy of Gettysburg National Military Park had a bit more of a recreational focus; I doubt that road races are held today on park roads.


*I do some American Civil War research and writing and have had 2 articles published here.  Am working on another right now.

Carbo Loading...and Ultrarunning

My opinion is that Carbo Loading is something that marathoners do that serves as a placebo to make their minds rest easier the night before a race.  I don't bother do it anymore in prep for an Ultra--I just eat whatever I feel like the night before.

Of course I did Carbo Loading when marathoning was my thing, and since I believed it helped me, it did help me.  I'm just not convinced now that there was really any physiological benefit to the ordinary runner.  I'll allow that maybe an elite runner might gain a smidgen of benefit.

All that said, I love to bake, and here was my carbo loading contribution for this morning, a holiday bread I bake every year:

[image credit Gary: Cardamom Bread]

 

 

Yeah, It's "Only" a Marathon, but....

A close running buddy passed on this race announcement for Freedom's Run, a marathon on 12 October.

Why might you be interested?

Advertised as "26 miles through 4 national parks," the race starts in Harper's Ferry, runs upstream along the C+O Canal, through Antietam National Battlefield, and finishes at Shepherd University.

In short, it is FULL of history, both natural and man-made.  The parks it traverses are Harpers Ferry, the C+O Canal, Antietam National Battlefield, and the Potomac Heritage Trail.

Note that some of the JFK 50 Miler route along the C+O Canal is included. 

What's not to like?

 

Refuse to Be Terrorized

As usual, Bruce Schneier gets it exactly right.  Below is a short excerpt (complete with Bruce's hyperlinks), please read the entire post here.

And refuse to be terrorized.

As the details about the bombings in Boston unfold, it'd be easy to be scared. It'd be easy to feel powerless and demand that our elected leaders do something -- anything -- to keep us safe.

It'd be easy, but it'd be wrong. We need to be angry and empathize with the victims without being scared. Our fears would play right into the perpetrators' hands -- and magnify the power of their victory for whichever goals whatever group behind this, still to be uncovered, has. We don't have to be scared, and we're not powerless. We actually have all the power here, and there's one thing we can do to render terrorism ineffective: Refuse to be terrorized.

It's hard to do, because terrorism is designed precisely to scare people -- far out of proportion to its actual danger. A huge amount of research on fear and the brain teaches us that we exaggerate threats that are rare, spectacular, immediate, random -- in this case involving an innocent child -- senseless, horrific and graphic. Terrorism pushes all of our fear buttons, really hard, and we overreact.
 

Again, continue reading the rest of Bruce's piece here.  It's worth it.

I've never been fast enough to run the Boston Marathon, but I have run on the streets of that old city.  I cannot imagine the fear and the, well, terror, that must have flashed through everyone's heart who was there.  Sending all the good vibes I can muster.

 

When I Knew I was an Ulrarunner

Some years back I participated in the local American Cancer Society Relay for Life where teams of runners get pledges for walking on a track. Over the years, a number of runners have used the venue to run their portion of the relay (see Note 1 at end).

In the early 1990s I needed a 25 mile training run and decided to do it as part of the relay. To minimize impact on the walkers I started about 3:00 am and stayed in the outside lanes of the 6-lane high school track. Well, sometime around 3 ½ hours or so I was approaching my 25 mile goal, and I had plenty left in the tank. Having come from the typical marathon base, the thought entered my mind to go ahead and add 1.2 miles to make it a marathon.

I had the time and the legs and the mind to do it, but I just smiled and said, I’m stopping now. Right then I knew I was no longer a marathoner, but an ultrarunner.



Note 1. About 5 years ago I got my pledges and decided to run for the entire 24 hour duration of the event (4:00 pm Friday to 4:00 pm Saturday) OR for 100 miles, whichever came first. I reached the 100 miles at 23 hours, and I can honestly say that the time flew by. Boredom?—Nah!  You oughta think about trying it.