Revered and Reviled Read online

  REVERED AND REVILED

  A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE DOMESTIC CAT

  By

  L.A. VOCELLE

  www.thegreatcat.org

  Great Cat Publications

  Copyright © 2016 Laura Vocelle. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-0692759820

  ISBN-10: 0692759824

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to all my cats, past and present, and especially to my little love Beseechy. They have given me the inspiration to write and complete this book in honor of the cat’s universal influence upon our history, art and literature.

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  List Of Illustrations

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  Chapter One:

  The Rise Of The Cat

  Chapter Two:

  The Cat As Goddess

  Chapter Three:

  The Cat In Early Aegean And Mediterranean Civilizations

  Chapter Four:

  The Dark Ages

  Chapter Five:

  The Middle Ages

  Chapter Six:

  The Early Modern Period

  Chapter Seven:

  The Enlightenment

  Chapter Eight:

  The Victorian Cat In The 19th Century

  Chapter Nine:

  The Cat In The 20th Century

  Chapter Ten:

  Epilogue The Cat Today

  Timeline Of The Cat In History

  List Of Theban Tombs With Cats

  List Of Cat Cemeteries In Egypt

  References

  Index

  Notes

  About The Author

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Front Cover: John Reinhard Weguelin, The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat (1886)

  Back Cover: 16th Century, Engraving from Fox's Book of Martyrs, A cat found in Cheapside, London, suspended from a gallows, habited like a monk with shaven crown.

  Figure 1.1. Miacid fossil

  Figure 1.2. Proailurus

  Figure 1.3. Felis Sylvestris Libyca, Edward Howe Forbush (1858-1929)

  Figure 2.1. Sekhmet, Author’s Photograph

  Figure 2.2. Statue of Bast, 400-250 BC, Permission of Walters Museum

  Figure 2.3. Egyptian Sistrum with cat on top, Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903

  Figure 2.4. Isis holding a sistrum, Musei Capitolini, Italy

  Figure 2.5. Temple of Isis at Philae

  Figure 2.6. Cat under Isis’s Chair, Bembine Table of Isis, Reprint from Manly P. Hall's, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928

  Figure 2.7. Animal Necropolis at Saqqara, Photograph by Hajor, December 2002

  Figure 2.8. Giovanni Belzoni, From Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London, 1820

  Figure 2.9. Cat Mummy, Rosecrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California

  Figure 2.10. Cat Mummy, 332 BC, Antiquité égyptienne, Musée du Louvre, Paris

  Figure 2.11. The Metternich Stele, From The Gods of The Egyptians, E. A. Budge, 1904

  Figure 2.12. Tomb of Nebamun, 18th Dynasty, 1350 BC, British Museum, Photograph by Marcus Cryon

  Figure 2.13. Painted Ostracon of Cat and Mouse, Deir El Medina, 1150 BC, Brooklyn Museum

  Figure 2.14. Drawing on limestone of a scene from a fable, 19th Dynasty, 1120 BC, Cairo Museum

  Figure 2.15. Prince Thutmose’s Cat Ta Mit’s Sarcophagus, Photograph by Larazoni

  Figure 2.16. Ra as a Cat Slaying Apophis, Author’s drawing

  Figure 2.17. Cat in the Marshes, Howard Carter, 1891-1893 Detail from scene on tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan, 1900 BC

  Figure 2.18. Temple of Pakhet, Speos Artemidos,18th Dynasty, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze

  Figure 2.19. Bubastis Today, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze

  Figure 2.20. Gayer Anderson Cat, The British Museum, London, Author’s Photograph

  Figure 3.1. Minoan Snake Goddess, Photograph by C. Messier

  Figure 3.2. Hadrian and Isis Pharia Coin, AD 133-134, Isis Pharia standing right, holding sistrum and billowing sail; to right, Pharus of Alexandria.

  Figure 3.4. The Fox and Cat, From Aesop’s Fables by Frances Barlow, 1687

  Figure 3.5. The Cat and the Old Rat, Illustration by Milo Winter, 1919

  Figure 3.6. Cat and Monkey, Illustration from Jan Griffier, 1680-1717

  Figure 3.7. Libertas-Sine-Labore, From Harper's Monthly, 1869

  Figure 3.8. Central emblem of a floor mosaic with a cat and two ducks, first quarter of the 1st century. National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng

  Figure 3.9. Birds Drinking from Bird Bath, National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng

  Figure 3.10. Felices Seniores, Notitia Dignitatum - Magister Peditum

  Figure 3.11. Laetus' Daughter’s Grave, From Les Chats, Champfleury, 1869

  Figure 4.1. St. Jerome in his Study, Antonello da Messina, National Gallery, London

  Figure 4.2 Freyja, Cats and Angels, Nils Blommer, 1852, National Museum of Stockholm

  Figure 4.3. Ypres Tower-Cloth Hall, Ypres, Belgium, Author’s Photograph

  Figure 4.4. Lindisfarne Gospel, British Library, London

  Figure 4.5. Lindesfarne Gospel, Detail of Cat, British Library, London

  Figure 4.6. Cat Fighting a Mouse for a Wafer, Book of Kells, AD 800, Trinity College Library, Dublin

  Figure 4.7. Pangur Ban, Reichenauer Schulheft, 1v, 2r., St. Paul’s Abbey, Lavanttal

  Figure 4.8. Noah and the Flood, 16th Century, Mogul

  Figure 4.9. Cat with a Fish, Calcutta, 19th Century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

  Figure 4.10. Lady, Chou Wen-Chu, Five Dynasties, 10th Century, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.11. Calico Cat Under Noble Peonies, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.12. Hibiscus and Rocks, Detail, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.13. Portrait of a Cat, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.14. Monkey and Cat, I Yuan-chi, Sung Dynasty National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.15. Children Playing on a Winter Day, Su Hanchen, 1130-1160, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.16. Cats Playing, Anonymous, Sung Dynasty, AD 960-1279, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 4.17. Nekomata, Toriyama Sekien, 1712-88

  Figure 4.18. Vampire Cat Attacking O-Toin, Prince of Hizen, Algernon Bertram Freeman, Mitford Tales of Old Japan, 1871

  Figure 5.1. Cat Beak-head Ornament, Reading Abby, 1121

  Figure 5.2. Waldensians as Witches in Le Championdes Dames Martin Le France, 1451

  Figure 5.3. The Devil Appears to St. Dominico of Calerueja, Folio 313, Le Miroir Historical, 1400-1410, National Library of the Netherlands

  Figure 5.4. A Plague Victim at Home, Ketham Woodcut from The Book of Venice, 1493-94

  Figure 5.5. Detail of Swordsman with a Cat, Psalter of Louis Xl Hutin and his first wife Tournai, 1315, Archives de l'Eveche, no number, Folio 114

  Figure 5.6. Cat and Mouse, Luttrell Psalter, 1330, British Library, London

  Figure 5.7. Donkey and Cat, Queen Mary's Psalter, British Library, London

  Figure 5.8. Bodley Bestia
ry, 1225-50, Bodleian Library, MS764, Folio51r, England

  Figure 5.9. Three Cats Gambol and Hunt, Aberdeen Bestiary, Folio 23v, Aberdeen University Library

  Figure 5.10. A Cat Licks Itself, Hours of Charlotte of Savoy , Paris, 1420-1425, MSM.1004, Folio 172r, J.P. Morgan Library, New York

  Figure 5.11. Cat Playing a Bagpipe, Book of Hours for use of Rome (Hours of the Virgin Office of the Dead) Paris, 1460, MSM. 0282, Folio 133v., J.P. Morgan Library, New York

  Figure 5.12. Rat Riding a Cat, Before 1390, MS 0143, Folio 076v, Pontifical of Guillaume Durand, La bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris

  Figure 5.13. Female Cat Carries One Kitten to Three Dead Ones, The Benefits of Animals, Persian 1297-1298, MSM 500, Folio 49v, J.P. Morgan Library, New York

  Figure 5.14. Cat Castrates Priest, Reynard the Fox, Wilhelm Von Kaulbauch, 1846

  Figure 5.15. Earliest image of Petrarch’s Cat Found in Giacomo Filippo Tomasini’s, Petrarcha Redivivus, Massimo Ciavolella and Roberto Fedi, eds., Padua, 1635

  Figure 5.16. Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington, by R. Elstrack, 1618

  Figure 5.17. The Spinner and the Visitor, Israhel van Meckenem, 1495/1503, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 5.18. Cats and Bamboo, Shen Chen-Lin, Ching Dynasty 1644-1912, National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Figure 5.19. Cat Organ, Gaspar Schott, Magia Naturalis, 1657

  Figure 5.20. Cat o’Nine Tails, Woodcut, 1549, Cosmographic Universelle of Munster, Basle

  Figure 5.21. Ein wahres Probiertes und Pracktisches geschriebenes Feuerbuch, Franz Helm, 1607, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 5.22. The Witches Sabbath, Studio of Hans Baldung Grien, 1515, Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg

  Figure 5.23. Hanging of the Chelmsford Witches, Woodcut, 1556, English Pamphlet, 1589

  Figure 5.24. Wriothesley and Cat, Trixie, 1603, Broughton House, Northamptonshire

  Figure 5.25. Agnes Bowker's Cat, 1569, British Library, London

  Figure 5.26. Cat, Edward Topsell’s Four Footed Beasts, 1658, University of Houston Digital Library

  Figure 5.29. Witches with a Cat, Jacob de Gheyn II, 1600’s, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

  Figure 6.1. The Garden of Earthly Delights (Detail), Hieronymus Bosch, 1480, Museo del Prado, Madrid

  Figure 6.2. The Temptation of St. Anthony (Detail), Hieronymus Bosch, 1480, Museo del Prado, Madrid

  Figure 6.3. Adam and Eve, Albrecht Dürer, 1504, J.P. Morgan Library, New York

  Figure 6.4. The Fall of Man, Hendrik Goltzius, 1616, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 6.5. The Last Supper, Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480, Fresco, Monastery San Marco, Florence

  Figure 6.6. Study of the Madonna with Child and Cat, Leonardo da Vinci, 1478, The British Museum, London

  Figure 6.7. Study Sheet with Cats, Leonardo da Vinci, 1513-1515, Royal Library, Windsor

  Figure 6.8. Adoration of the Magi, Bernardino Butinone, 1485-1495, Bequest of Helen Babbott Sanders, Brooklyn Museum, New York

  Figure 6.9. Music, Hans Baldung Grien, 1529, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

  Figure 6.10. Annunciation, Jan de Beer, 1520, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

  Figure 6.11. Annunciation, Lorenzo Lotto, 1534, Museo Civico, Recanati, Italy

  Figure 6.12. The Annunciation, Federico Barocci, 1585, The Art Institute of Chicago

  Figure 6.13. Supper at Emmaus, Titian, 1530-1533, Musée du Louvre, Paris

  Figure 6.14. Supper at Emmaus, Francesco Bassano, 1570, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

  Figure 6.15. Portrait of a Young Woman Holding a Cat, Francesco Bacchiacca, 1525-1530, Private Collection

  Figure 6.16. Woman with a Cat, Francesco Bacchiacca, 1540, Staatliche Museen Berlin

  Figure 6.17. Portrait of Cleophea Holzhalb, Hans Asper, 1538, Kunsthaus, Zurich

  Figure 6.18. Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese,1563, Musée du Louvre, Paris

  Figure 6.18a. Wedding at Cana, Detail of Cat

  Figure 6.19. The Madonna of the Cat, Federico Barocci, 1575, National Gallery, London

  Figure 6.20. Two Children Teasing a Cat, Annibale Carracci, 1590, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Figure 6.21. A Boy and Girl with a Cat and Eel, Judith Leyster, 1635, National Gallery, London

  Figure 6.22. Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits and Vegetables, Frans Snyders, 1614, Art Institute of Chicago

  Figure 6.23. Naked Man Playing with a Cat in Bed, Giovanni Lanfranco, 1620, Commerce d’Art, London

  Figure 6.24. The Katzen Familie, Jan Steen, 1650, Magyar Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, Budapest

  Figure 6.25. The Dancing Lesson, Jan Steen, 1665-1668, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Figure 6.26. The Idle Servant, Nicolaes Maes, 1655, National Gallery, London

  Figure 6.27. Woman Feeding her Cat, Gabriël Metsu,1662-1665, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Figure 6.28. Man with a Cat on Shoulders and a Mouse in Hand, Cornelius Danckerts, 1630-1640, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Figure 6.29. Two Children with a Cat, Cornelius Danckerts, after Frans Hals, 1630-1640, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Figure 6.30. Cat Stealing Fish, Giuseppe Recco, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Figure 6.31. Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player, Louis Le Nain, 1642, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

  Figure 6.32. A Cat Hung up in Cheapside, Habited like a Priest, From Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 16th Century

  Figure 6.33. Belling the Cat, (Detail) Pieter Bruegel, 1559, from Netherlandish Proverbs

  Figure 6.34. Illustration of Charles Perrault’s Puss in Boots, Gustav Doré, 1867

  Figure 6.35. Cardinal Richelieu with three kittens on his lap. Photograph by T.W Ingersoll, St. Paul, 1908, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 7.1. Etching of Moncrif and a Cat from his book Les Chats, 1727

  Figure 7.2. Dr. Johnson and his Cat Hodge, 19th century engraving

  Figure 7.4. Mr. Horace Walpole’s Favorite Cat, 1796, Stephen Elmer, Private Collection

  Figure 7.5. Death of Mlle Dupuy Bequeathing all to her Cats, From Moncrif’s Les Chats, 1727

  Figure 7.6. Mme de Lesdigieres Cat, Paris, From Moncrif ‘s Les Chats, 1727

  Figure 7.7. Cat, Oeuvres complètes de Buffon,1830

  Figure 7.8. Katterfelto with Black Cat, from The Quacks of Old London by Charles John Samuel Thompson, Bretano, London, 1928

  Figure 7.9. Sir Walter Scott at his Desk with Cat, Engraved portrait of Sir Walter Scott at his desk by R. C. Bell after J. Watson Gordon, [Portraits], Sir Walter Scott in His Study (Castle Street, Edinburgh) John Watson Gordon, 1871, University of Edinburgh

  Figure 7.10. Fish Peddler in Kitchen, Willem Van Mieris, 1713, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.11. The Ray, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Musée du Louvre, Paris

  Figure 7.12. Still Life with Cat and Fish, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

  Figure 7.13. Partridge, Hare and Cat, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1730, Adolph Menzel Museum, Berlin

  Figure 7.14. Washerwoman, Jean-Siméon Chardin, 1735, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio

  Figure 7.15. Ivan VI of Russia with a Cat, 1740-1741, Artist unknown, Private Collection

  Figure 7.16. Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Montpensier, François Boucher, 1749, Private Collection

  Figure 7.17. The Harlot’s Progress, William Hogarth, 1732, Private Collection

  Figure 7.18. The First Stage of Cruelty, William Hogarth, 1751, Engraving, London Evening Post

  Figure 7.19. The Graham Children, William Hogarth, 1742, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.20. Girl with a Kitten, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1745, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.21. Young Girl with a Cat, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1747, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.22. Girl with a Cat, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

  Figure 7.23. The Artist’s Daughters with a Cat, Thomas G
ainsborough, 1759-61, National Gallery, London

  Figure 7.24. Katzen, Gottfried Mind, 1800

  Figure 7.25. L’Élève intéressante, Jean Honoré Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard, Private Collection

  Figure 7.26. Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, Franciso Goya, 1787- 1788, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Figure 7.27. Children with Cat and Mouse, Suzuki Harunobu, Japanese Edo Period, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  Figure 7.28. Indian Lady Chasing a Cat with a Stick, 18th Century, Artist Unknown

  Figure 7.29. Myojakdo (Cats and Sparrows), Byeon Sang-byeok, Joseon Dynasty, National Museum of Korea, Seoul

  Figure 8.1. Baby’s Own Soap Trade Card, Albert Toilet Soap Makers, Early 20th Century

  Figure 8.2. Tintype portrait of 4 women with a cat, 1865, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 8.3. First cat show at The Crystal Palace, 1871, London

  Figure 8.4. Prize-winners, The Crystal Palace, 1871, London

  Figure 8.5. Asnières cimetière chiens, Antique Postcard

  Figure 8.6. Cats’ Meat Man, 1920, London

  Figure 8.7. Dame Trot and her Comical Cat, 1880

  Figure 8.8. Rosalie Goodman, Cat Hoarder, 1871

  Figure 8.9. Three Girls, Cats, and a Trike, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

  Figure 8.10. Harry Pointer’s Pets, c 1880

  Figure 8.11. A Young Girl with Cat, Berthe Morisot, 1886, Private Collection

  Figure 8.12. Playing with Paints, Henriëtte Ronner- Knip, c. 1890, Private Collection

  Figure 8.13. Two Cats, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen , La Bodinière, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  Figure 8.14. Untitled, Called ‘Early Irish Indian Cat’, Louis Wain, c. 1924-1939

  Figure 8.15. The Little Folks of Animal Land, 1915, Harry W. Frees

  Figure 8.16. Mme George Charpentier and her Children, 1878, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Figure 8.17. Portrait of Pierre Loti, Henri Rousseau, 1891, Kunsthaus, Zurich

  Figure 8.18. Olympia, Édouard Manet, 1863, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

  Figure 8.19. Hand with a Bowl and a Cat, Vincent Van Gogh, 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  Figure 8.20. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Detail), Paul Gauguin, 1897-1898, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston