Cats in Art: The Last Supper (Bassano)

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.

Today I feature a second painting by Leandro Bassano (also known as Leandro da Ponte, or Leandro da Ponte Bassano):

Image credit Wikimedia Commons, The Last Supper, Leandro Bassano, 1578, oil on canvas, size unspecified, held by Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, Italy.

The "held by" is not a gallery, but rather is a church, where the painting simply hangs.  And yes, there is indeed a cat in the picture.  To see it, however, we need a close-up of the very dark kitty crouching--of all places--down there at the lower left:

The painting above is soooo dark and gloomy that I hesitate to even show it....except that it provides a valuable art lesson.  Turns out that Leandro--as did many artists--painted more than one image of The Last Supper.  Perhaps the one above was originally a much brighter painting, but has deteriorated over time.

Regardless, check out Leandro's other crack at The Last Supper.  This one is much brighter and pleasing to the eye:

Image credit here, The Last Supper, Leandro Bassano, oil on canvas, date and size unspecified, held by Archivio Bridgeman Art Library, Berlin, Germany.

And here's the mandatory kitty close-up of the feline down in the lower left front:

Thank goodness for the Internet and all the wonderful art images that are to be found there. Without it I would have been stuck with a very poor Last Supper.

Also, it appears that the very same cat as last week was the subject for this painting as well.  Way to go, Leandro, immortalizing your pet forever!  I can well imagine Leandro saying to his dad Jacopo--also an artist and who also apparently painted this same cat--"Dad, can I borrow the cat for a couple of days?  I'm working on The Last Supper and I've got a blank spot down there at the lower left."  

Or, if my Italian translator is working OK, "Papà, posso prendere in prestito il gatto per un paio di giorni? Sto lavorando su l Ultima Cena e ho un punto vuoto laggiù in basso a sinister."

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!

Cats in Art: The Rich Man and Lazarus (Bassano)

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.

Today I feature another painting by Leandro Bassano, who is the son of our featured artist from the past two weeks, Jacopo Bassano:

Image credit The Atheneum, The Rich Man and Lazarus, Leandro Bassano, ca. 1580-85, oil on canvas, 52" x 71", held by Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

And the close up of the kitty there in the lower left (why does it always seem that the cat appears in the lower left corner?):

Bugler's analysis: 

Leandro was the son of Jacopo Bassano, and his works exhibit the family love of animals.  Here he illustrates a parable drawn from Luke 16: 19-31, which tells how the starving beggar Lazarus habitually asked for crumbs from a  rich man's table, but was refused; dogs came and licked his sores.  After his death Lazarus was taken to Paradise, but the rich man was consigned to Hell.  The begging scene seems almost secondary to the animated kitchen scene on the left, where the feast is being prepared.  Here the cat--in similar livery to the dogs--seems far more preoccupied with confronting a monkey than with stealing tidbits from the table.

Couple of my comments.  

--First, the kitty bears a remarkable resemblance to the that the Leandro's dad Jacopo used in Animals Entering the Ark (see my post from 2 weeks ago, here).  One can't help but that think that this gray and white cat was the family pet.

--Second, this painting shows yet again that you can never trust a monkey.  It's plain to see that the primate is taunting the poor cat, who has no other recourse than to assume a defensive posture, prior to kicking the monkey's *ss.

--Note that the cat-monkey theme has appeared before in art.  See my post on The Fall of Man, here; that painting hangs in the magnificent Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (AKA Holland).

Last, you can bet that this rich-poor theme will never be mentioned in any of the Republican debates, as an object lesson on taking care of the poor. 



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!

Cats in Art: Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (Bassano)

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.

Today I feature another painting by Jacopo Bassano, the second week in a row:

Image credit Wikimedia Commons, Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jacopo Bassano, 1577, oil on canvas, 39" x 50", held by Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.

And of course we need a close up of the kitty down there in the lower left:

The beleaguered cat seems about ready to nail that pesky dog who is menacing the cat's food dish.  The poor canine has no idea who he is dealing with...the cat of Jacopo Bassano, famous painter!

Other than the kitty, this painting is quite interesting for its darkness and gloom, although the subject matter should be happy: Christ raising Lazarus from the dead.  Perhaps the miracle has not yet happened and poor Laz is still dead; yet there's a bunch of food around that seems to indicate a feast.

Big time darkness and gloom....thank goodness for the happy ray of light created by the cat!

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!

Cats in Art: Animals Entering the Ark (Bassano)

Back from hiatus.  

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.

Image credit Museo Nacional del Prado, Animals Entering the Ark, Jacopo Bassano, 1570, oil on canvas, 81" x 104", held by Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain.


Since this nearly 500 year old image is rather large and dark, of course we need the kitty close-up from the lower left corner:

Bugler's comment:

The illustrious and prolific Bassano family of artists, who worked in the are around Venice, habitually incorporated animals not their paintings.  Jacopo's workshop produced several pictures on the theme of Noah's Ark.  All the animals are about to board with their mates, and two cats are crouching quietly in the bottom left-hand corner.  The one with the white coat and tabby markings is very similar to other cats in Jacopo's work, and it is tempting to think that it is a portrait of a family cat.

The featured cat seems a tad uneasy, perhaps by the proximity of the pair of dogs immediately to the right.  In fact, the second kitty--dark gray and in the shadows--practically finds itself underneath one of the dogs.  Not a cat's preferred location, I'd wager.

But as for the art, the white tabby is flawlessly rendered, looking especially lifelike and virtually three-dimensional on the canvas.  And I like the notion that it may well be one of Bassano's cats, preserved for all time in this painting.

See my previous Jacopo Bassano post on The Supper at Emmaus, here.  The kitty in that painting does look the same.


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!

Cats in art: The Supper at Emmaus (Bassano)

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

Image credit here.  The Supper at Emmaus, Jacopo Bassano, 1537, Oil on canvas, 92" x 98", held by Cittadella Cathedral, Padua, Italy.   

Zuffi makes an interesting observation:

Cats are often present under the table in scenes from the Gospels painted during the Renaissance.  It is not always necessary to seek symbolic meanings at all costs; sometimes they are simply realistic touches.

The cat in the lower left seems angry and confrontational, wondering what the resting dog may do.  So sometimes a cat is just being a cat, even in priceless art of antiquity.