THE CAT IN ART 107 



In the Gallery of Madrid there is a fantastic picture 

 by Hieronymus Bosch, representing the birth of 

 Eve, in which a fierce but very badly painted cat 

 is prematurely breaking the peace of Paradise by 

 eating a poor little tadpole ; and in Van Tulden's 

 "Orpheus taming the Beasts," — also in Madrid, — 

 we see the animals great and small listening to the 

 melody in a state of mild rapture, — like Germans in 

 a Munich beer-cellar, — with the solitary exception 

 of the cat, who erects an angry tail, and evinces a 

 disposition to fight a sleepy and music-loving lion. 



The faithfully wrought scenes of common life, 

 which were the delight and triumph of the Dutch 

 and Flemish schools, afforded a sympathetic setting 

 for the cat. It would have been strange indeed 

 if Jan Fyt, who copied beast and bird with such 

 patient fidelity, had slighted this little model sitting 

 in his chimney corner, or prowling panther-like 

 along his neighbour's wall. He was well aware of 

 her value. He knew how finely her pliant strength 

 contrasted with the stillness of the poor dead phea- 

 sants whose rufHed plumage he so loved to paint. 

 In one of his pictures in Milan there are two splen- 

 did, greedy, thievish cats, instinct with life and 

 energy, that creep with cautious steps and gleaming 

 eyes about the heaped-up game. The subject com- 

 mended itself to other artists, but few gave it such 

 lively and forcible expression. Compare the treat- 



