Revered and Reviled

by L A Vocelle

  For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

  For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

  For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.

  For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.

  For he purrs in thankfulness, when god tells him he’s a good Cat.

  For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.

  For every house is incomplete without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

  For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

  For every family had one cat at least in the bag.

  For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

  For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.

  For the dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.

  For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

  For he is tenacious of his point.

  For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

  For he knows that God is his Savior.

  For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

  For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.

  For he is of the Lord’s poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually-Poor Jeoffry! Poor Jeoffry! The rat has bit thy throat.

  For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.

  For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.

  For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.

  For he is docile and can learn certain things.

  For he can set up and gravity which is patience upon approbation.

  For he can fetch and carry, which is patience upon proof positive.

  For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

  For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

  For he can catch the cork and toss it again.

  For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.

  For the former is afraid of detection.

  For the latter refuses the charge.

  For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.

  For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.

  For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.

  For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.

  For his ears are so acute that they sting again.

  For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.

  For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.

  For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.

  For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.

  For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.

  For, tho he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.

  For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.

  For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.

  For he can swim for life.

  For he can creep (Smart, 1763/1939).

  Jonathan Swift, (1667-1745), the author of Gulliver’s Travels and many other notable works even found time to pen a poem about a cat, albeit not a very favorable one.

  A Fable of the Widow and Her Cat

  A widow kept a favourite cat.

  At first a gentle creature;

  But when he was grown sleek and fat,

  With many a mouse, and many a rat,

  He soon disliked his nature.

  The fox and he were friends of old,

  Nor could they now be parted;

  They nightly slunk to rob the fold,

  Devoured the lambs, the fleeces sold,

  And puss grew lion-hearted.

  He scratched her maid, he stole her cream,

  He tore her best laced pinner;

  Nor Chanticleer upon the beam,

  Nor chick, nor duckling ‘scapes, when Grim

  Invites the fox to dinner.

  The dame full wisely did decree,

  For fear he should dispatch more,

  That the false wretch should worried be:

  But in saucy manner he

  Thus speeched it like a Lechmere.

  “Must I, against all right and law,

  Like a pole-cat vile be treated?

  I! Who so long with tooth and claw

  Have kept domestic mice in awe,

  And foreign foes defeated!

  “Your golden pippins, and your pies,

  How oft have I defended?

  ‘Tis true, the pinner which you prize

  I tore in frolic; to your eyes

  I never harm intended.

  “I am a cat of honour---” “Stay,”

  Quoth she, “no longer parley;

  Whate’er you did in battle slay,

  By laws of arms become your prey,

  I hope you won it fairly.

  “Of this, we’ll grant you stand acquit,

  But not of your outrages:

  Tell me, perfidious! was it fit

  To make my cream a perquisite,

  And steal to mend your wages!

  “So flagrant is thy insolence,

  So vile thy breach of trust is;

  That longer with thee to dispense,

  Were want of power, or want of sense:

  Here, Towser!---Do him justice” (Bryant, 1999, pp. 117-119).

  Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) owned a cat named Hinx (figure 7.9) and once made a comment to Washington Irving, “Ah! Cats are mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes no doubt from their being so familiar with warlocks and witches” (Van Vechten, 1921, p. 81). He had the pleasure of meeting the Archbishop of Toronto, Naples, who had quite a reputation for loving cats. Scott himself observed that the archbishop’s only passion was in fact for his cats. Likewise, amused by the archbishop’s passion for cats, a Lady Morgan recorded her meeting with the ailourophile. ‘“You must pardon my passion for cats,”’ said the archbishop, “but I never exclude them from my dining room and you will find they make excellent company…” Between the first and second courses, the door opened, and several enormously large beautiful Angora cats were introduced by the names, Pantalone, Desdemona, and Othello. They took their places on chairs near the tables, and were as silent, as quiet, as motionless, and as well behaved as the most bon-ton table in London could require.

  Figure 7.9. Sir Walter Scott at his Desk with Cat, Engraved portrait of Sir Walter Scott at his desk by R. C. Bell after J. Watson Gordon, [Portraits], Sir Walter Scott in His Study (Castle Street, Edinburgh) John Watson Gordon, 1871, University of Edinburgh

  On the Bishop requesting one of the chaplains to help the Signora Desdemona, the butler stepped to his lordship, and observed, “‘My lord, la Signora Desdemona will prefer waiting for the roasts’” (Van Vechten, 1921, pp. 280-281).

  Poetry about cats was not confined to the West. The great Japanese Haiku master and Buddhist monk Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), wrote several Haiku about cats concentrating on the cat’s nature and world around it.

  After a long nap,

  The cat yawns, rises, and goes out

  Looking for love.

  Goes out

  Comes back---

  The loves of a cat.

  The winter fly

  I caught and finally freed

  The cat quickly ate.

  The spring rain;

  A little girl teaches

  The cat to dance.

  Flopped on the fan,

  The big cat

  Sleeping.

  (Issa, n.d.)

  CATS IN ART

  Conspicuous as ever, the ubiquitous cat posed for the painters of the century. The typical paintings of a ca
t trying to steal fish or meat, or having a duel with a dog, were accompanied by the cat’s more refined presence in portraits, especially of children and/or ladies. In the 1713 Dutch Baroque painting, A Woman and a Fish Pedlar in a Kitchen by Willem Van Mieris (1662-1747) (figure 7.10), a cat sits at the bottom of the picture looking up at a dead duck as the woman and the peddler perhaps haggle over a price.

  In the 1728 painting by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, The Ray (figure 7.11) we see the same sort of realism as in Van Mieris’ work, but here the cat is the sole actor on the canvas, greedily treading over oysters probably unable to decide where to start first. Chardin greatly impressed Diderot when he proclaimed that painting was done with emotions not just colors. “Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions.” Even though painted with emotion, most of Chardin’s paintings relay peacefulness and profess no real message.

  Figure 7.10. Fish Peddler in Kitchen, Willem Van Mieris, 1713, National Gallery, London

  In another of his paintings, Still Life with Cat and Fish (figure 7.12), painted the same year as The Ray, the cat takes center stage again surrounded by a veritable feast of fish. The expression of expectation on the cat’s face in Partridge, Hare and Cat (1730) (figure 7.13) again shows the cat as the only living thing on the canvas, looking up, ready to steal the partridge which lies next to a dead hare. In a different attitude, a cat sits patiently in the foreground of The Washerwoman, 1735 (figure 7.14) a symbol of domesticity, while a lone woman washes clothes.

  Figure 7.11. The Ray, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Musée du Louvre, Paris

  Not only did the cat perch next to the poor and common folk in these early portraits, but it also accompanied royalty, as well as the rich and famous on canvases. An early portrait of Ivan VI of Russia (1740-1764), artist unknown (figure 7.15), has the young boy sitting barefooted wearing a bright red gown with his left hand resting on the head of a black and white cat. Again we have to note the use of a black and white cat which symbolizes good luck.

  Another portrait of a high ranking child is that of Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Montpensier, (1750) by François Boucher. Here the young Duke sits with a small white kitten on hislap, undoubtedly symbolic of his innocence (figure 7.16).

  Figure 7.12. Still Life with Cat and Fish, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

  Figure 7.13. Partridge, Hare and Cat, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1730, Adolph Menzel Museum, Berlin

  The English painter, William Hogarth, (1697-1794), who was highly critical of the lax social mores of the time, set out to draw and paint about issues of which he felt strongly, and used the cat symbolically in many of his works. A versatile artist, Hogarth was both a painter and engraver. Some of his most famous engravings are of a prostitute named Moll Hackabout. Based loosely on the life of a real prostitute, Kate Hackabout, the series of six engravings tells her life story. When she first arrives in London in hopes of getting a job as a seamstress, she is instead set upon by members of the grimy underside of society and is unsuspectingly duped into becoming the mistress of a wealthy businessman. By Plate 3 in the series, Moll has gone from being a mistress to a common prostitute with a Madame to look after her. The small cat in the foreground with its bottom raised in a rather suggestive way serves as only one of many symbols of her imminent downfall and licentiousness (figure 7.17).

  Figure 7.14. Washerwoman, Jean-Siméon Chardin, 1735, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio

  Figure 7.15. Ivan VI of Russia with a Cat, 1740-1741, Artist unknown, Private Collection

  Figure 7.16. Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Montpensier, François Boucher, 1749, Private Collection

  Figure 7.17. The Harlot’s Progress, William Hogarth, 1732, Private Collection

  In the end, Hogarth creates a very strong moral condemnation of the depravity that was rampant in London. In another group of engravings entitled, The Four Stages of Cruelty, Hogarth depicts his disgust for animal cruelty and the high crime rate amongst the poor of London. The pictures, issued on affordable paper, were to be distributed to the lower classes as educational material. In the engraving, First Stage of Cruelty (1751) (figure 7.18), we meet Tom Nero, an infamous torturer of animals, whom we see doing unspeakable things to a dog. Not only does the dog suffer but several other animals as well, including two fighting cats who are hanged by their back legs from a tall pole just within reach of each other. In the bottom left corner, a dog is attacking a cat, and in the background of the picture, a cat tied to two bladders to weigh it down is being thrown from a high window.

  Figure 7.18. The First Stage of Cruelty, William Hogarth, 1751, Engraving, London Evening Post

  When not producing these vivid moralistic works, Hogarth was painting portraits of the social elite†. The Graham Children (1742) (figure 7.19) displays several symbols of mortality, and a tribute to the baby in the picture who had actually died before the picture was completed. The cat looks longingly at the bird wishing for its death, the scythe on the clock, and the hour glass all allude to the finiteness of life.

  Figure 7.19. The Graham Children, William Hogarth, 1742, National Gallery, London

  The French painter Jean Baptiste Perronneau (1715-1783), specialized in portraits which were more prestigious and lucrative than landscapes. Girl with a Kitten (figure 7.20), painted in 1745, shows a very pretty young girl holding a long haired grey cat, one of its paws held gently in her hand. The grey of the cat matches the blue of her dress, and the eyes of the cat and the girl’s are almost the same color leading us to recognize a distinct affinity between the two.

  In another similar portrait, Young Girl with a Cat (figure 7.21), the girl is daintily stroking the cat’s head. Yet another ‘blue’† portrait is of Mme Pinceloup de la Grange. She stares off into space in a regal fashion holding a somewhat perplexed feline, which resembles a Charteux.

  Figure 7.20. Girl with a Kitten, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1745, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.21. Young Girl with a Cat, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1747, National Gallery, London

  These portraits stand in marked contrast to Giuseppe Maria Crespi’s (1665-1747) Girl with Cat (figure 7.22). Instead of an upper class woman, we see a peasant, with her hair wrapped up, holding a black cat which she teases with a mouse. Even the color scheme is dark, unlike the light images of Perronneau’s.

  Alexandre-François Desportes (1661- 1743), was a French painter and decorative designer who specialized in animals. In Cat with Dead Game, we see a black and white cat stretching up to reach what looks like a dead chicken. In a second painting, Still Life with Cat, Desportes’ main character, the cat, extends a greedy paw hoping to grab one of the fresh oysters laid out on the table while its owner has briefly stepped away, indicated by one eaten oyster with a fork nearby Cats were often depicted as uninhibited scavengers and stealthy thieves. However, Desportes, seemingly a cat fancier, did not confine the content of his paintings to their less desirable side, but also painted Kittens at Play which captures the light hearted creatures happily amusing themselves.

  Figure 7.22. Girl with a Cat, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

  The English painter Thomas Gainsborough painted Six Studies of Cats (1765-70), now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of cats. Even though Gainsborough preferred painting landscapes, he was famous for his portraits. An example of which is The Artist’s Daughters with a Cat (1759)(figure 7.23). The painting’s main colors are brown, beige and grey tones which camouflage the cat so well that it seems to be a part of the older girl’s dress. Although the cat is barely visible, we see that it looks like it might be trying to bite the younger sister’s shoulder. Perhaps there is some deeper meaning to the painting regarding the two sisters’ relationship.

  Figure 7.23. The Artist’s Daughters with a Cat, Thomas Gainsborough, 1759-61, National Gallery, London

  The Swiss artist, Gottfrie
d Mind, also known as the Raphael of Cats (1758-1814), was a genius at capturing every nuance of a cat’s attitude. He loved cats very much and left behind dozens of pictures of them in various poses and situations. In the painting Katzen, a mother cat sits above her two kittens on a bench while they play below. Her look is expectant and playful (figure 7.24). In yet another painting, Cat in a Cage, a cat sits in a bird cage surrounded by mice, indicative of Mind’s sense of humor and irony.

  Figure 7.24. Katzen, Gottfried Mind, 1800

  Jean Honoré Fragonard and his sister-in-law Marguerite Gérard both painted L’Élève intéressante (figure 7.25) in which a young girl admires a painting while a mischievous cat tries to attack a dog sitting on a stool behind her. In another portrait in blue and white tones, Fragonard again pits cat against dog but this time in the arms of a beautiful girl in Girl Playing with a Dog and Cat said to be a portrait of Marie-Madeleine Colombe.

  Figure 7.25. L’Élève intéressante, Jean Honoré Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard, Private Collection

  Francisco Goya (1746-1828), used cats as symbols and allegories in his etchings and paintings. In the 1799 etching Alla va eso, or in English, There it Goes, part of the Caprichos group of etchings, a witch holds on to the devil who is holding some sort of staff which a cat bites. Goya often used witches as a form of social criticism and is said to have commented, “There goes a witch, riding on the little crippled devil. This poor devil, of whom everyone makes fun, is not without his uses at times.” In another famous etching, The Dream (or Sleep) of Reason Produces Monsters, we see the artist himself, Goya, fitfully asleep at his desk while above him are bats and owls representative of necromancy. Next to his chair an oversized cat stares at the sleeper who is desperate for reason to triumph over superstition. For Goya the cat is still the iconic symbol of the devil and witchcraft. At the very end of the 18th century Goya painted Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga, the son of the Count and Countess of Altamira (figure 7.26). In the child’s portrait, three cats (the third is barely visible behind the two) intently stare at a pet magpie which holds Goya’s calling card. The cat is a contrast to the child’s innocent gaze and the birds symbolize the soul and death.