Indian and Far Eastern Art

In India, most early interpretations of cats are found in carved or painted religious images; for example, a goddess of fertility may be seen riding a cat.

 In painted scenes that told a story, perhaps of a feast day or the arrival of Western visitors, cats signify high status and wealth.

Other proof of the cat's exalted status in India exists in local folk art traditions, including portraits, still lifes, and observations of animals.

The house cats in these paintings resemble the exclusive pets in court portraits implying that there may have been little or no effort to create pedigree-type breeds.

Farther east, in Thailand, cats were highly regarded, and their wide variety of coat colors and postures were recorded in vivid painting.

The many manuscript copies of the Cat Book Poems depict pointed cats -ancestors of the Siamese - copper-brown "Sopalak" cats and silver-tipped blue "Si-Sawat" cats, as well as tabbies, bicolors, and patterns that would baffle geneticists and breeders.

 The most famous manuscript copy is now in the Thai National Library in Bangkok, but others exist in museums around the world.

Cats did not became widespread in Chin art until the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279). They appeared in many court portraits, suggesting that, as in India, cats were status symbols.

Most Chinese artistic renditions of the cat are expressively natural. Spring Play in a T'ang Garden, attributed to the Chinese Emperor Hsuan Tsung, who reigned from 1426 to 1435, depicts kittens frolicking among flowers in a On silk and in woodblock, cats stalk bees or  climb trees to avoid bug-eyed dogs.

By the 15OOs, the cat was a popular subject for cloisonne figures and, because of its superb nocturnal vision, for lamp designs. These lamps took the  form of crouching cats in painted porcelain. The models were open at the top, with hollowed-out eye sockets, and the light from a candle within shone through the eyes, both to illuminate and to ward off evil spirits.