CHAPTER VI 



THE CAT IN ART 



" A little lion, small and dainty sweet, 

 With sea-grey eyes and softly stepping feet." 



IF the cat has been exiled from ecclesiastical 

 architecture, she has triumphed in Christian 

 art. The early Italian masters admitted her 

 over and over again into their sacred pictures, paint- 

 ing her lovingly, and with a delicate appreciation, 

 not only of her grace, but of her domestic character, 

 as though they sought to represent through her the 

 human, earthly, simple life which they blended so 

 sweetly with the mysterious and divine. In many 

 pictures of the Annunciation we find a cat drows- 

 ing upon the Blessed Virgin's work-basket, or curled 

 up on a corner of her azure robe. We see her re- 

 peatedly in paintings of the Last Supper, the Mar- 

 riage Feast at Cana, and the birth of the Blessed 



