The Cat in Art

The Cat in Art
by Stefano Zuffi

The Cat in Art
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Book Summary Information

Author: Stefano Zuffi
Brand: Smithsonian
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-01
ISBN: 0810993287
Number of pages: 360
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Product features:
  • Observe cats play, pounce, sleep and purr their way through 170 reproduced works of great art including Van Eyck, Raphael, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Manet, Gainsborough, Warhol, Picasso Gaugin and many others. Art historian, Stefano Zuffi, contributes charming text explaining everything from the feline goddesses of the ancients to modern day pets.
  • Hardcover, 359 pages. 9.25"sq.

Book Reviews of The Cat in Art

Book Review: FOR CAT LOVERS AND ART AFICIONADOS
Summary: 5 Stars


Who can resist a soft, furry, inscrutable, playful, endearing cat? Not many. Especially not artists throughout the ages whose works have been gathered in this fascinating volume by art historian Stefano Zuffi. He describes the cat's important place in culture and art, literature and fable as follows:" True to its nature, it rarely emerges as a protagonist: more often than not, we must look closely to detect its presence. However, this presence, especially in painting, is never a banal one. It has been given a rich variety of symbolic meanings, so much so that we can almost read them across centuries of masterpieces - a sort of history of art with whiskers and a tail, full of surprises."

Thus begins our journey with the cat from antiquity and the Egyptian Goddess Bastet to the modern feline as found in contemporary portrayals. In the Middle Ages we sometimes find the timeless game of cat and mouse as carved in French cathedral choir stalls or in the Lutrell Psalter, an illuminated manuscript now seen in London's British Library.

Later we find the cat in paintings by such beloved artists as Annibale Carracci, Tintoretto, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Jan Van Eyck. The latter places him at the birth of John the Baptist, while a drawing by Da Vinci offers numerous studies of cats.

Richly illustrated with over 250 color images "The Cat In Art" is a sumptuous volume chronicling the works of artists who have been entranced by this affecting creature.

- Gail Cooke

Summary of The Cat in Art

The Cat in Art is both full of surprises and hauntingly familiar, as cats play and pounce and sleep and purr their way through 170 great art masterpieces from the ancient world to the present. What cats represent to us in life, they bring to art: elegance and grace; domestic tranquility; symbols of sensuality and mischievousness.

Here are paintings by Van Eyck, Raphael, Leonardo, Bruegel, Rembrandt, Chardin, Gainsborough, Manet, Renoir, Bonnard, Gauguin, Matisse, Balthus, Picasso, Warhol, and many others. Sometimes the cats are the stars of the work, and sometimes they are working their magic from the corners of rooms?in which case both the whole work and a detail showing the cat are illustrated.

Stefano Zuffi?s charming text tells the reader what it all means, from the feline goddesses of the ancients, to the devilish cats of the Middle Ages, to the indispensable companions of our own time.

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