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I only know I found them. I don’t know why. I surely wasn’t looking for them.
William Blake’s cat.Addendum: The cat links inspired Dave Bell to pass on the Viking Kittens. They’re not art. In truth, I’m not sure what they are.
Van Dyck’s cat.
Renoir’s cats.
King Lear’s cat.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s cat.
Queen Anne of Brittany with patron cats.
William Holman Hunt’s cat.
Oh dear. Giggles and outright guffaws resound. I think I liked The Cavalier better though. http://www.literary-cat.cwc.net/Arty_cats_2.htm
Some of these looked very familiar -- I think we may have a book with some of them....
Oh there's a surprise!
MKK
Have I mentioned the Viking Kittens?
The Viking Kittens are unbelievably horrible! Horror Show, in fact. O Chen Horror Show.
I was hard pressed not to laugh aloud.
Hmmmm. If the Viking Kittens' goal is the Western Shore, doesn't that imply they're sailing eastward? Wouldn't west be more traditional? And why am I so sure that "Western Shore" is relative to the land mass, and not to the body of water?
Hmmm #2. Unlike dogs, cats apparently do not play poker. A shame, really: they bluff magnificently.
The Viking kittens are so art. Just pretty terrible art.
Good Lord. The opening bars of Viking Kittens nearly made me spew liquid all over the keyboard, not least because it was unexpected. I mean, I expected wacky, just not...that.
...an early symptom of cat collecting?
I feel that I should apologise for directing people to a Viking page which makes such blatant use of horned helmets.
Don't knock the Viking Kittens: you now have a view into my world. You don't even want to know about the World's Meanest Box Turtle currently residing in my apartment, and how she's trying to fit zimmerit on her shell and install a LAW on top. (I dread the day someone decides to start watching Japanese monster movies over here: the first time she watches "Gamera", we're all doomed.)
Dave, I wouldn't worry about the helmet thing. Historical accuracy is the least of this page's problems.
Still, I laughed, I cried, I fell out of my chair. Good thing no one was in the library at the time.
Remembering this earlier discussion, I was wondering if anyone had identified just who Queen Anne of Brittany's patron cats were?
The patron-saint cat on the left is undoubtedly St. Anne, patron saint of Brittany, grandmother of Jesus, wife of St. Joachim.
The other two bear martyr's crowns. The one in the center may be St. Edmund, who carries the ermine banner and clutches an arrow. The other, a female carrying a cross bottony and holding out an empty hand, I haven't yet figured out.
Kate Yule ponders: If the Viking Kittens' goal is the Western Shore, doesn't that imply they're sailing eastward?
I put it to you, Kate, that the Vikittenings are sailing to the western shore of Ireland.
I have had the Viking Kittens in my favorites list for quite a while now. Every so often I need to have a refresher to the days ...news.
Reminds me of the days of me youth, when a friend and I decided we should recreate the world's great works of art, only populated by big-eyed cats instead of people: The Last Supper, The Guild of Cloth Merchants, and so on. Sadly, this project languished around 1980, and nothing came of it except some good sketches. Well, the torch has been borne aloft triumphantly (although with more normal-sized eyeballs). I salute them.
Darn, Jim sniped off the easy one. The old lady cat with all the headgear is undoubtedly Saint Anne. The rightmost saint is a martyr, but that's as far as I can take it.
It would help if I could see the original. If the reason the cat has its left arm up in that odd position is that it was originally holding a small masonry tower tucked into the crook of its elbow, then it's Saint Barbara. If it was holding a tray with eyeballs on it, it's Saint Lucy. And so forth and so on.
Saints without their emblems are as hard to sort out as an inked but not yet colored page full of superheroes.
The saint on the right could be St. Helen, if the cross she's carrying is the True Cross.
St. Helen was a British girl, daughter of Old King Cole. If that crown is a royal crown rather than a martyr's crown it will work. We know from her covered hair that she's a married lady (so Virgin & Martyr is right out).
By Ghu, you're right; those are crespines she's wearing. That plus the crown plus the cross ... Saint Helena. And given the central figure's crown and arrow, you've got to be right about it being Saint Edmund the Martyr.
That's three out of three. You rock.
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