Cats in Art: The Triumph of Divine Love (Rubens)

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.

The bride and I recently visited the Ringling Brothers art museum in Sarasota, FL.  This is post 3 of 4 of some of the artworks we saw there.

From the Triumph of the Eucharist series of huge paintings:

Image credit The Ringling Museum, The Triumph of Divine Love, Peter Paul Rubens, 1625, oil on canvas, 152" x 204", held by The Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL.

And a close-up of the rather human-looking face of the lion, found, of all places, down at the lower left corner (where the cats always seem to be):

So we have a chubby cherub riding a lion that looks for all the world like it is pulling a fancy circus wagon (I bet John Ringling was really happy to acquire this canvas!).  To me, the lion alternately appears to switch between being sinister and being mischievous.

As with last week's post, this painting is YUGE, some 12' tall x  17' wide.  You simply stand there and feel tiny and humbled at the talent and beauty before you.

[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!]