Images of Domestic Cats Hunting

Images of domestic cats hunting, fishing, suckling their young, and playing with children are abundant in Egyptian art, but Greek and Roman artists ignored the small cat, preferring to portray the more spectacular lion and tiger.

 The cat's association with the old religions from antiquity until the Middle Ages brought them into disfavor with the Christian Church, and they rarely show up in art of that period.

During the Renaissance, the cat began to appear in allegorical paintings, often as a symbol of perfidy and evil. Later, in American and European art, cats came to symbolize beauty and harmony, often appearing in domestic scenes and family portraits.

With the exception of the illustrators of the Lindisfarne Gospels in AD 700 and the Irish Book of Kells in AD 800, European artists and artisans throughout the Middle Ages disregarded the cat, although cats occasionally appear in carving in Celtic churches.

These carved cats may owe more to fables and pagan stories known to the carpenters and masons than to Christian influence.