Sunday, February 14, 2016

Cats in Art: 3 Holy Families With Cats (Rembrandt, Dossi, Diamantini)

Happy Valentine's Day!

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in ArtI am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.

Since on 31 Jan and 7 Feb I've covered two different paintings called The Madonna of the Cat, I figure it'd only be fitting to make this week's post also on the same very popular subject matter.  I will broaden it a bit to refer to the topic as "3 Holy Families With Cats. "

I can see that many artists would have painted the Holy Family, but I am extremely gratified that so many of them included kitties in their images!


This first one is from none other than Rembrandt, entitled Virgin and Child With Cat: and Joseph at the Window.





And the mandatory kitty close-up, where the cat appears in the lower left corner, of all places:



I think it's kinda telling that the cat gets better exposure than Jesus' daddy....



Image 2 of 3 is an etching from Giuseppe Diamantini, and is called Holy Family With a Cat:




And the kitty close-up, yet again at the lower left:



Finally, I present image 3 of 3, The Holy Family, With the Young Saint John the Baptist, a Cat, and Two Donors.  This is a truly beautiful image, with sharp lines, vibrant colors, and just an air of majesty or authority:



And the close-up of the very skinny kitty, this time centered rather than in the traditional lower left corner:



Enjoy these images of the Holy Family!

[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!]

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