Cats in Art: Singeree in Een Wachtpost (Teniers)

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.

This is the second of two images from Abraham Teniers.

Image credit Rijksmuseum, Singeree in Een Wachtpost, Abraham Teniers, ca 1650, engraving, approx 30" x 20", held by Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland.

And the close-up of the unfortunate kitty in the doorway on the right side:

The Flemish title of the work is explained via Wikipedia:

Abraham Teniers contributed to the spread of the genre of the 'monkey scene', also called 'singerie' (a word, which in French means a 'comical grimace, behaviour or trick'). Comical scenes with monkeys appearing in human attire and a human environment are a pictorial genre that was initiated in Flemish painting in the 16th century and was subsequently further developed in the 17th century. 

The poor cat is being perp-walked by a bunch of monkeys.  The alleged crime? We know not.  Perhaps the cat was up on the table, was eating house plants on the mantle, or unmercifully pestered the other cats in the household.

[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!]