Proof: Some cats are stealing food from the pantry

[Ulli]

Some cats are stealing food from the pantry, but this picture by Niclaes Maes shows us too where lazyness can lead to. In this case to the loss of property.

Here is an original description of the picture:

PLATE 62.—NICOLAES MAES (1632-1693)
DUTCH SCHOOL


" THE IDLE SERVANT "

NICOLAES MAES was a pupil of Rembrandt. From him he acquired a love of chiaroscuro, though he never learnt to handle that dangerous artifice with the profundity of his master. What was in Rembrandt almost a law of his imagination becomes in Macs merely a mannerism, a trick of emphasis. He concentrates his high lights upon the figure or group of figures which he wishes to bring into prominence, and fills in the background with dark shadows, often warm and pleasantly atmospheric in their effect, but in this picture inclined to turn into a brown fog that soaks up light like a sponge, and blurs rather than stresses the contrasts he intended to produce.
The subject is treated with a good-natured sense of humour. Hogarth would have given us a much more racy version, but we are arrested by the episode, and the two chief figures are rendered in an exceedingly life-like way. Less happy is the glimpse of the farther room. The murk to which we have referred has settled there quite unmistakably. His painting lacks crispness of touch, and the result is a rather woolly texture.
The truth is that the virtue of genre pictures of this type, and of the relatively small-scale Dutch conversation pieces, depends to a great extent on the vivacity of the artist's handling and the perfection of his finish. When these are not of an outstanding quality there is often little left, beyond some passing pleasure of anecdote, to claim our attention.

[zachor_ve_kavod]

You can see this type of satire in some of the paintings in the late baroque, early classical movement.  Goya especially adapted this style, though in a far more subtle way.

[Ulli]

You can see this type of satire in some of the paintings in the late baroque, early classical movement.  Goya especially adapted this style, though in a far more subtle way.

I have looked up Goya's pictures.

Some are nice, but the vast majority is a little bit creepy.


http://eeweems.com/goya/artpage_index.html

Here is an interesting one: http://eeweems.com/goya/for_being_a_jew.html

[zachor_ve_kavod]

I have looked up Goya's pictures.

Some are nice, but the vast majority is a little bit creepy.


http://eeweems.com/goya/artpage_index.html

Here is an interesting one: http://eeweems.com/goya/for_being_a_jew.html

I can't open the link.  Which painting is it?

[Ulli]

http://eeweems.com/goya/for_being_a_jew.html

[Rubystars]

I don't know why art critics don't like that picture with the cat. I think it's great.

[Ulli]

I don't know why art critics don't like that picture with the cat. I think it's great.

I like it too, specially the lesson that we learn from it.

Do you think cat's have really such a thievy character?

[Rubystars]

I like it too, specially the lesson that we learn from it.

Do you think cat's have really such a thievy character?

Like most animals they're opportunistic. To them it's not stealing because they don't understand property, unless they have something they dont' want taken away. 

[muman613]

I don't know why art critics don't like that picture with the cat. I think it's great.

I like it too, specially the lesson that we learn from it.

Do you think cat's have really such a thievy character?

Feed your cats and they wont 'steal'. I wake up each day and feed my cats, before I eat. It is a Torah value to feed your animals before you, yourself, eat. My cats don't steal...

muman613

[Ulli]

I believe you Muman, but not all cats are as righteous as yours, look here:



It is obviously a gentile kitchen.

I don't think cat's have a sense for this ... 

P.S.: I have no idea, how I have found this cat pictures. 

[Ulli]

But not all cats are like this:



"Reading Girl" by F. v. Ude

[Rubystars]

That last picture reminds me of when I was trying to study and I let Eva (the ferret) run around the room and I was writing something to do my homework. She grabbed the waving pen from my hand and ran off with it. lol