20 Confusing medieval cat paintings that question how cats are supposed to be like

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Aug 12, 2026 8:45 AM EDT

Have you ever seen those medieval paintings featuring cats?

We all have, at least once. And our reaction has always been the same: "What is THAT?" Yeah, it seems like medieval painters had an interesting idea of what cats were supposed to look like, not at all what we expect to see in this century.

Medieval painters were not exactly remembered for being super realistic; that came later on. But their representation of pets, and cats mostly, makes us wonder if all of them had issues with their eyesight. There's no way they looked at a real cat, then at their paintings and said: "Yeah, that definitely looks like the same cat." Their perception of reality might have been a little distorted. Or perhaps they ran out of candles while painting at night, and they kept going in pitch-black darkness and just hoped for the best. They didn't have Photoshop for fixing their mistakes, or even a lantern to make sure they were mixing the right colors. After all, they don't call it 'the dark ages' for nothing. Yes, we know it has nothing to do with electric light, but you get the joke.

Distorted or not, they definitely made it fun to look at. We have cats that look like dogs, cats that look like dragons, cats in a full suit of armor, cats with human faces- you name it! Medieval people loved to insert their pets into their portraits, and they didn't have the internet to entertain themselves, so they got really creative in their spare time. The matter of skill must be a factor interfering here as well. Not to say that medieval painters weren't talented, but maybe they lacked a bit of understanding of animal anatomy or how to translate a living, breathing, three-dimensional being into paper. The same thing could happen with humans; it's not like those look much better. But at least we understand that they are humans! Everything starts going south when you can't figure out whether you're looking at a cat, a dog, a lizard, or a monkey. Because yes, in medieval painting all of those can be depicted in a suspiciously similar way. They may be some of the weirdest things we've seen, but also one of the most fun! So here we have a collection of medieval paintings showing us that the idea of "Cat" is more about the spirit than the actual look.

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20 Confusing medieval cat paintings that question how cats are supposed to be like

Have you ever seen those medieval paintings featuring cats?

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