Sunday, September 25, 2011

Cats in Art: The Scullery Maid (Crespi)

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 ARTILIM Online Art gallery, here.  Guiseppe Maria Crespi, The Scullery Maid, c. 1710-15, Oil on canvas, 16" x 12", held by Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
 
Zuffi comments:
 
In the solitude of the kitchen, in the corner warmed by the hot coals that still glow in the fireplace, there appears the unmistakably rounded outline of a sleeping cat, a silent, discreet companion in the young scullery maid's life.
 
Cat + chair + heat = an unbeatable combination.  Crespi was so good at capturing ordinary scenes from ordinary life, even on such a small canvas as this one, little more than a foot square.
 
 

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