|
|
|
OLD MASTERS
|
|
|
|
The Italian Renaissance and Sandro
Botticelli go hand-in-hand. His paintings, often featuring beautiful
women clad in diaphanous costumes, have all sorts of allegorical and
philosophical meanings. But this one is thought to be based on a 'real'
story concerning a sea captain, a ship's cat and
a young woman's chest!
One night en voyage a frightful storm caused the sea to boil and
the ship's cat, a favourite with captain and crew, disappeared —
believed washed overboard. A young female passenger learned of the event
and for several days secretly searched the vessel for the poor creature.
Eventually one dark still night she heard a sound different from the
usual creaking of the hull and traced it to an unused cabin. There she
discovered the terrified cat, who had crept into a wooden chest during
the storm and had got locked in. She reunited the captain with his pet
and when his eyes met hers .. .well, you can imagine the rest.
This decorated panel was discovered as the spalliera of a cassone
(back of a cabin chest) painted by the artist friend of the captain who
loved the romantic story. The young woman is depicted as Venus born from
the sea, the cat is the ship's cat and the captain is represented by
Mars to the left of Venus. The maiden is offered a sailcloth to catch
the breeze — representing safe passage to terra firma, and the scattered
wild roses represent the memory of an onboard romance. And all because
of a scaredy cat.
|
|
|
|
In Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks it is
written: 'If at night your eye is placed between the light and the eye
of a cat, it will see the eye look like fire'. The artist, also an
inventor and very much ahead of his time, attempted to illustrate this
phenomenon in a painting. He selected a suitable cat and arranged for a
sitting with its owner, a Florentine woman called Lisa. When the cat
dropped off to sleep Leonardo lit a candle. The plan was that Lisa would
pinch the cat to wake it at the very moment the candle was snuffed out.
Theoretically the cat's eyes would reflect the fire — which Leonardo
planned to capture in paint. Unfortunately things didn't run quite so
smoothly. On being pinched the cat leapt into the air. knocked over
Leonardo's palette and flew out of the window, never to be seen again.
The resulting painting was done from memory as compensation to Lisa for
her lost cat. Her expression is said to have captured the moment
perfectly.
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo was at the stage of
sketching the outlines in charcoal for the Sistine Chapel ceiling
frescoes, to be 'coloured in' at a later date. To facilitate the work, a
series of scaffolds and plank runways were constructed for the master
and his assistants. A witness has left testimony that he saw a cat roll
in charcoal dust and then stretch itself out on the end of a plank for a
snooze. Michelangelo, filled with creative enthusiasm, sprang onto the
opposite end of the plank, inadvertently catapulting the cat into the
air like a circus tumbler. It hit the ceiling, leaving a full frontal
impression in charcoal before falling to the ground. Later Michelangelo
faithfully coloured in his outlines. On stepping back to view his work
the great Renaissance master was aghast. Perplexed by this strange
addition, he hurriedly concealed the image of the cat with a painting of
Adam, which was much more to the Pope's liking.
|
|
|
|
Holbein was arguably the best
portrait painter of the early sixteenth century. He was the official
painter to the English court, chosen for his unique skill at capturing
the character of his subjects. There exist many examples of his
portraits of Henry VIII, his various queens and also his ministers. Here
is one of his less well-known works, a portrait of Sir Thomas More's cat
circa 1527. Seen against the same background as the better-known
portrait of its owner, the proud feline sports the chain of office of
Lord Chancellor which Sir Thomas held. Some scholars say that if viewed
from a certain angle the cat takes on the features of Sir Thomas More.
Perhaps Holbein employed the same tricksy technique that he used in his
later painting The Ambassadors (1533), where a skull appears if
the painting is viewed from a particular perspective.
Some say the King was never able to discover the correct angle, but came
to view More himself as a sly cat — which may have had some bearing upon
his execution in 1535.
|
|
|
|
One of the strangest painters was
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who used all manner of objects, including food, to
make his weird and wonderful paintings. It is thought that the
inspiration for his unique approach to art hit him whilst sitting in his
favourite trattoria one sunny day. Alarmed by a sudden crash, he spilled
his entire meal onto his lap. The cause of the commotion became apparent
as an alley cat emerged from a pile of disturbed dustbins, its wet fur
covered with rotting and discarded salad leaves, bruised fruits,
peelings and withered flowers. 'Magnificent!' thought Arcimboldo. He
locked the image firmly in his mind and rushed home to reproduce it in
paint. Delighted with the result, Arcimboldo continued to experiment,
playing with his food at restaurant tables. He soon discovered that by
manipulating a variety of fruits and vegetables he could create
wonderfully evocative portraits...and then eat them! This gave rise to
the saying 'you are what you eat'!
|
|
|
|
Frans Hals, the celebrated
seventeenth-century portrait painter, didn't always get the results that
he set out to achieve. On one memorable occasion he employed a new model
for a serious commission. The model, an inexperienced young man, donned
the apparel of a dashing cavalier and took his pose for the long
session. The painter's instructions were emphatic: 'under no
circumstances are you to move — keep a dignified and solemn expression'.
Keen and professional, the model tried to carry out these simple
instructions, but it wasn't quite as easy as it sounded — the artist's
cat had snuggled up in the wide brim of his hat, and from time to time
would stretch and change position. As the cat was dark-coated against a
dark background, the great Dutch artist failed to see the bete noir.
The only giveaway was that each time it moved, its tail flicked under
the model's nose, causing a mirthful tickling sensation. The hapless
model found it impossible to sustain a serious expression. The result
captured on canvas is a smiling young cavalier and not at all the
picture that Hals originally had in mind!
|
|
|
|
The Spanish painter Velazquez was
considered by many to be the greatest portraitist of his time. That
said, he certainly had some remarkably unattractive models in his
capacity as court painter in Madrid. After encountering King Philip IV
and his notoriously plain family, he travelled to Italy in search of
beauty. There he discovered the works of Titian and Michelangelo and was
incredibly envious of their handsome subjects. On his return home he
stumbled into his bedroom only to discover that nobody had remembered to
feed his cat whilst he was away. And from the feathers scattered over
the room it seemed that the only thing that the poor wretch had eaten in
the last two weeks was a white dove. Filled with guilt, Velazquez
immediately set about earning enough money to buy his hungry cat a
slap-up dinner.
The resulting painting, Venus, at her Mirror, is shown here. With
heightened sensibilities after his exposure to the beauties of Italy,
Velazquez could not bring himself to paint the unattractive features of
his model, so the mirror remains blurred and we see her only appealing
asset. The angelic cat, having taken on the characteristics of its
recently consumed victim, sits quietly by.
|
|
|
|
Paint Madame seated on a swing being
pushed by a Bishop and place me on the ground in a position where I can
see her legs', instructed the Baron de Saint-Julien when he commissioned
Fragonard to paint this picture. The artist tried and tried to get the
right effect but he just couldn't get any life into the picture.
'Imagine, Madame, that the statue before you is a cat that you wish to
shoo away!'
Madame swung and let her shoe fly off in the direction of the statue.
The cat image made all the difference, for she loved to taunt animals.
Fragonard captured the moment in paint. Like a single pink rose, the
petticoats of the cruel Madame flutter in the breeze as she swings with
gay abandon.
'No, no, no!' exclaimed the Baron.'It will have every animal lover
believing Madame to be unkind! You must change it immediately.'
Fragonard reluctantly made the alterations on another version of the
painting, while the original, with its strange cat-shaped statue, was
hidden away in the artist's private collection. And there the evidence
remains, picked out in a shaft of Rococo sunlight — a careless young
woman kicking off her shoe aimed at a poor cat! You will see that the
artist has painted the swing ropes as frayed. Madame, you are in for a
fall!
|
|
|
|
Francisco Goya, the great
eighteenth-century Spanish court painter, suffered from severe deafness
which caused him no end of trouble. On one occasion he was commissioned
to create a sketch for a tapestry to hang on the walls of a charitable
institution. For his subject he took a popular game played by village
women and children, called 'Pussy in the Air'. They would choose a
good-tempered cat and, taking the edges of a blanket, they would toss it
in the air — the object of the game being to keep the cat airborne for
as long as possible. It was later pointed out to the elderly painter
that the commission was for an animal protection organisation. Goya
hastily covered up his mistake, replacing the flying cat with a puppet
effigy. He renamed his painting El Pelele (The Mannequin).
|
| El Pelele (The Mannequin).
|
|
|
|
The National Gallery in London holds
a fine collection of paintings by the artist Joseph Mallord William
Turner, including one unfinished work circa 1835-40 known in art circles
as Margate from the Sea. This painting certainly incorporates all
of Turner's fascination with light, air, water and atmospheric
conditions but whether or not the location is actually Margate is
anyone's guess. Perhaps the name of the painting refers not to the
English coastal town, but to the artist's feline friend — also called
Margate. Turner is believed to have rescued the luckless cat after its
former owner threw it, tied up in a hessian sack, from the end of the
pier. Amazingly the cat managed to claw its way free of the bag and paw
its way to the surface before the artist fished it from the waves. The
event was captured on a canvas, shown here. Could it be that this
recently discovered painting, rather than the one in the National
Gallery, is the true Margate from the Sea?
|
|
|
|
