Cats in Art: The Cat's Medicine

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 San Diego Museum of Art, The Cat's Medicine,  Jan Steen, ca 1663, oil on panel, 22" x 18", held by San Diego Museum of Art.

And the kitty close-up:

Bugler comments:

It is difficult to tell whether the cat is delighted, or is struggling to free itself from the clasp of the girl, who is simply imitating the practices of her elders.  Either way, being fed a spoonful of soup must surely be a better bet for a cat than being given a reading lesson.

The reference, of course, is to another Jan Steen painting, which I blogged about here, back in 2011.  You really must click on over!

Back to this one: the cat seems to be reaching for the spoon, which makes me think that whatever is in the spoon must be pretty good.  Once again, a group of happy Dutch kids.  Seems like the 1600s in the Netherlands was the Golden Age of child happiness!


[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!]