Why Cats Are Creepy in Medieval Paintings

Beings like devils to make it look bad If they draw it like this, we would understand. But what about cats? “Who doesn’t love those cute furballs? “There must be a tangible reason why they depict it this way.” One cannot help but think.

Let’s see what we see in the works of the Middle Ages. underlying the frighteningly strange drawing of cat depictions. what is the reason?

The biggest motivation for the strange drawing of cats was religious reasons.

If you look at cats depicted in the Middle Ages “Whoever drew this must have never seen a cat in his life.” you can say. As if someone He gave them a description of the cat They also look as if they had sketched and painted them.

Cats, even depicted as gods in mythology, Its situation in the Middle Ages, It must have been a bit humiliating for them…

Of course being depicted as ugly creatures There were some reasons, and the most prominent of these reasons was religion. To be more specific, it was the Catholic Church.

Before Christianity, cats were considered sacred.

Before Christianity became widespread in Europe, cats; by the ancient Greeks, Romans and especially the Egyptians was extremely loved and were often considered divine in their respective religions.

Jews accused of killing Jesus also turned themselves into cats They sneak into Christian homes and cast spells. was thought. A whole different level of ignorance…

Moreover, cats were often associated with “femininity”. Women in the medieval mentality; sinful and lustful It was defined as.

Well, of course the Catholic Church did not like this situation. Supposedly cats were a prime example of “deviant” behavior and They were uneducable, disgusting creatures.

The prevailing thought was that cats were creatures that followed the devil’s path.

Also, because there was more ignorance in believing in “dark forces” at that time. cats’ ability to see in the dark It was worrying people.

This kind of “night vision” allows animals to They ignore the light of Jesus and choose to walk in the darkness of the devil It meant. (I won’t laugh..) For all these reasons, cats were drawn in ugly and strange shapes as punishment through art.

We have previously discussed the strange portrayal of babies in the Middle Ages. The reason for this was religion.

The child figures in the works generally represented Jesus. Those without a depiction of Jesus restricted to what exists in the Bible It was based on baby characters.

In the Christian belief, Jesus, who came to the world perfect, did not change as he grew up and that it always remains the same perfection It was believed.

This is exactly why babies were depicted as adults. Thus, it became the common way of painting babies. Also for artists at that time Since realistic and idealized forms are not very important Babies like the one above emerged.

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