A Collection of Ugly Medieval Paintings of Cats That Make Us Question What Cats Look Like

John Summers • Contributor

Jun 25, 2024 9:00 PM EDT

Not to throw shade on any painter who lived during the Middle Ages, but I don't think any of them ever saw a cat in real life. It's either that or this was all an elaborate inside joke that only medieval people got. One day, all the painters got together and said, "Wouldn't it be hisssterical if all of us inserted weird-looking cats into our paintings? Like, keep the rest of the painting looking good, but draw just the cat as if you're a ten-year-old with his first box of crayons."

Well, all the cats in this collection are so weird-looking that for a second there, I started to doubt myself. Perhaps I don't know what a cat looks like in real life. And why would I know? I'm a dog person. Who knows, perhaps there was a time when cats really looked like that, and we are all being totally unfair to these medieval artists.