Cats have tangled a spell around owners and inspired fine art for eons. The early civilization most linked with a cultural and artistic reverence for cats is that of ancient Egypt.
This connection goes back more than 5,000 years. Initially, felines were admired for their ability to protect pharaohs from predatory snakes and scorpions. During the Middle Kingdom (around 2030–1650 B.C.), cats were domesticated. Their useful deft hunting skills of mice and other vermin, who ate valuable grain and spread disease, had become apparent. The earliest surviving ancient Egyptian images of cats—a three-dimensional feline representation in the form of a cosmetic vessel and a cat depiction in a tomb—date from this period.
‘Nebamun Goes Hunting’
The British Museum owns the greatest surviving painted images from ancient Egypt. They were made for a tomb that interred Nebamun, a minor clerk, that was built in Thebes, modern-day Luxor. These New Kingdom paintings were created by an unknown artist called today the “Michelangelo of the Nile” given his great technical and artistic skills.
Nebamun’s painted wall fragment “Nebamun goes hunting,” which dates from 1350 B.C., is rendered in vibrant colors. The scene shows Nebamun standing on a small papyrus boat. His wife Hatsehpsut is portrayed behind him and their daughter sits beneath him. Nebamun’s expedition through the marshes is a fowl-hunting trip. He holds three decoy herons in one hand and with the other he carries a throw-stick. Nebamun’s cat has been brought along to flush out birds.
The creation of “Nebamun Goes Hunting” was a laborious process. Once the tomb’s stone walls were erected, they were covered in a paste composed of straw and mud from the Nile. After this mixture dried, a thin layer of white plaster was applied. In turn, as this coating began to dry, the artist and assistants rushed to complete the wall’s painting by lamplight before the plaster was completely dried.
The curatorial estimate is that the entirety of the tomb cycle was finished in just three months. The pigments came from desert stones (yellow, red, and white), ground glass (blue and green), and soot from cooking pots. To make marks, rushes chewed at the end were employed as brushes.
The figural draftsmanship in “Nebamun Goes Hunting” is superb. The reed-filled marsh is a wildlife symphony: The gathering of birds includes Egyptian red geese, black and white wagtails, and fine-feathered ducks, along with tiger butterflies, scaly tilapia, and puffer fish. Lotus flowers in various states of bloom and a papyrus thicket enhance the setting.
Ring of Cats
One of the most charming works in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection is also one of its smallest. “Ring with Cat and Kittens” was made around 1295 to 644 B.C., between the end of the New Kingdom and the start of the Late Period. The Met writes, “Elaborately carved faience rings typically date to this period when craftsmen had total mastery of the medium faience; this one is a superb example.” Faience is a man-made mixture composed of quartz, lime, alkaline salts, and mineral-based dyes. Its bright blue glaze may have been an allusion to the semi-precious blue stone turquoise. This hue was associated with fertility, rebirth, and life—making it a perfect material for shaping feline objects.
The museum’s ring shows a mother cat with seven kittens; the eighth broke off at some point. The shank has a carved bundle of flowering papyrus representative of a Nile marsh. Scholars believe this piece of jewelry symbolizes an ancient Egyptian myth, “Faraway Goddess,” about an important feline deity. In the story, the cat has fled to a part of the Sahara Desert, which throws the Nile Valley into chaos. She is persuaded to go back to Egypt and with her comes a return to prosperity and the stable order. “Ring with Cat and Kittens” was probably created to celebrate the feline deity when she was being honored at a festival. In addition, this small piece of jewelry would have been considered amuletic, a protective charm that could also bring good fortune.
The ring’s more recent provenance is illustrious. By the early 20th century, it was in the collection of the Cairo-based Omar Sultan Pasha, considered the paramount Egyptian private collector of his day, who gathered more than a thousand objects before his 1917 death. A subsequent owner was the American Benjamin Zucker, one of the world’s leading diamond dealers and a storied collector.
Sandra Hindman, founder and CEO of the gallery Les Enluminures, which sold “Ring with Cat and Kittens” to The Met in 2017, shared on the podcast “Inside the Jewel Vault” that Mr. Zucker said the ring was one of his favorites. Ms. Hindman recounted that while it was in his possession, he never took it out of its box. As it is so rare and fragile, he was terrified of dropping it.
Statue of Bastet
“The Gayer-Anderson Cat” is also housed in the British Museum and is considered one of the institution’s greatest masterpieces. This superbly crafted cat statue, portraying a form of the goddess Bastet, is one of the most impressive surviving examples of its kind. It dates to around 600 B.C., from the Late Period (circa 664–332 B.C.), and its name comes from a previous owner, Maj. Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson, a noted collector of small-scale ancient Egyptian works, who donated it to the museum.
This life-size bronze cat is primarily composed of copper, as well as tin, arsenic, and lead, and was probably made as a temple offering. Only royalty or someone nearly as wealthy could have afforded such a fine work as “The Gayer-Anderson Cat.” Bronze was more costly than materials such as wood or stone. Furthermore, this piece is adorned with precious metals: The cat wears a silver protective pectoral, as well as golden earrings and nose ring. The wedjat-eye on the pectoral symbolizes a healing power and protection. It harkens to the mythology of the Egyptian god Horus whose eye was either injured or stolen by another god and then restored. The scarab beetle incised on the cat’s head and chest signifies rebirth, too.
Fine decorative details enhance the cat’s modeled realism. Its eyes were probably originally inlaid with glass or stone, which would have amplified its attentive gaze. The figure is depicted in an erect, noble pose with its tail curled around its paws. Sleek muscles and long legs communicate an impression of power as well as elegance. Its head is proudly raised and ears, with tufts of hair inside, stand to attention.
These objects embody ancient Egypt’s devotion to cats and are also some of the finest existing examples of painting, decorative art, and sculpture from the civilization as a whole. The survival of these works is astonishing. As all these artworks are now in public institutions, everyone can marvel at their beauty, technical skill, and special feline charm, keeping their memory alive.
