"if cats had wings, larks would be expensive" - russian proverbs

From a 20th-century collection of 1200 Russian proverbs comes this selection, none of which I think I've seen before.

• Manure does not shame the field.
• The horse is often wiser than its rider.
• A stupid dog is not a tiger.
• The dog that likes to eat partridges is of no use to the hunter.
• If you deal with dogs, learn how to bark.
• The cat saw the camel and immediately arched its back.
• Old mice like fresh lard.
• If the cat can't eat the fish with its mouth, it will eat it with its eyes. (Too true - curator)
• A wet poodle does not fear water.

-- Langnas, Izaak Abram, 1911-. 1200 Russian Proverbs. New York: Philosophical Library, 1960.  Passim.

tiny ride

Gift of Elizabeth, Julie, and Catherine Andrus in memory of John and Marion Andrus
collections.artsmia.org (PD)

Which Aesop's Fable is this?  I thought I knew/could find every one, but I don't know yet which improving tale belongs to this "Horse with Two Monkeys and a Dog." The Flemish engraver Nicolaes de Bruyn created this scene in 1594 as an illustration to a book of fables.  It's another tiny artwork:  1 5/16" x 2 3/8", and yet full of action.  Every player seems to be mugging for the spectator, particularly the monkey in the upper right and the horse. If you have a hard time looking at it on this page, try this link to its page at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

great lords and dogs - proverbs of serbia

From a book of Serbian proverbs published in 1915:

• Feed your horse like a brother, but ride him like an enemy.
• A frog saw the horse being shod and lifted up his foot also.
• Hungry hounds make good hunting.
• The barking of young dogs is carried away by the wind.
• Great lords and dogs do not close the door behind them.
• Be on the watch when an old dog barks.
• Crop a dog's ears he remains a dog; dock his tail he is a dog still.
• Dogs howl round empty churches.
• If dogs had their way there would be no horses.

. . . and I have to throw this one in, though it's got nothing to do with critters:

• Give the priest what is the priest's, and the king what is the king's, and then flee.

 -- Turner, K. Amy. National Proverbs: Serbia. London: C. Palmer and Hayward, 1915.

marengo rides again

Antoine-Jean Gros [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

He seems such a gentle little grey creature to carry so much history.  This is Marengo, Napoleon's warhorse, captured by the British on the battlefield of Waterloo.  He outlived Napoleon by ten years, and seems to have been very well treated by his captors (is that how to think of it still?) in that time.  Upon his passing his skeleton was placed in the National Army Museum till a recent stay at the Natural History Museum.  You might call it a bit of a spa retreat:  Marengo's bones were in need of cleaning, his stance needing perking up, and his mounting hardware needed updating.
If you'd like to see a bit of how that was done, have a look at this page over at the Natural History Museum in London.  The National Army Museum also has a detailed account of Marengo's conservation adventure here, but just a note - there is a large closeup of his skull at the top of the page, if you need to steel yourself for that.  I found his skull interesting in its delicacy, and could see he must indeed have been a handsome fellow.

a horse for the harvest

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Outside the town of Fraga in Spain lie the ruins of the Roman Villa Fortunatus. This villa dates from the third century AD, but its beautiful series of animal mosaics is thought to have been installed a century later.  The series is an agricultural calendar, with an animal representing each month.  Though it's a farming calendar, few of the animals portrayed are domesticated.  This is one of the few: the horse of September with a vine, representing autumnal games and the grapes to be harvested.  At least that's what I've figured out from trying to translate this page on the mosaics, which is part of a fascinating look at the site overall.

a horse enlists, 1918

thanks thegraphicsfairy.com

From the WWI era (note reference to the Hun - it's a derogatory term for Germans):  a horse does his bit in this heartfelt poem..

ENLISTED
Rebecca N. Porter

I hadn't been troubled about the war,
For under the kind blue skies
I was happy, and free to roam the fields
As the vagrant butterflies.
But all in a day, the clouds grew gray
And darkened my Paradise,
For “The One Whom I Loved The Best” embarked
On the voyage of sacrifice.

And no one explained, and no one came
Through the darkness to comfort me,
And my life grew chill, and my heart grew hot
With a speechless misery.
I cannot tell how my shackles fell,
But God must have heard my prayer,
And I too traveled the watery trail
To join the boys over there.

They say that some men dread to come,
Though all that they hold most dear
Is at stake on the altar of No-Man's-Land,
'Twixt the Hun and free-born here.
'Tis enough for me, that the One I Would See
Is “somewhere among this force,”
And together we fight with a God who heard
The prayer of a little brown horse.

from Animals. [Boston: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]. Vol 51 No. 1 (June 1918), p. 12.

phar lap turns 90

Copyright Museum Victoria / CC BY
Photographer: Benjamin Healley
Museum Victoria
http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/specimens/139139

A hero from Down Under, the racehorse Phar Lap was born in New Zealand, trained in Australia, and lauded the world over.  His untimely and tragic death was a mystery for years, all the more so since he was only 6 and a half years old (Oct. 1926- to April 1932).    His mounted hide (shown here) is displayed at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, his skeleton at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and his heart is in storage with the National Museum of Australia collections.
It's been 90 years since Phar Lap's birth, and the National Museum has a fascinating collection of articles to celebrate this champion.  Here's the link.

here, iknht, good boy

not at the met, but the brooklyn museum  --  Stela of Intef and Senettekh, ca. 2065-2000 B.C.E. Limestone, 11 3/4 x 13 15/16 x 15/16 in. (29.8 x 35.4 x 2.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.66. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 54.66_detail_slide.jpg

 What a treat to find an entire article on ancient Egyptian dog names (and a few other creatures thrown in!). It's in a Metropolitan Museum of Art publication from 1977, "More Ancient Egyptian Names of Dogs and Other Animals" by Henry G. Fischer.  Each name has a citation, and I would love to find images to match, though the article has a few.

You'll hear of Nfr (a common name), Hknw, Hknn and Hnf.

'Ikni is also a common name from the Middle Kingdom and later, though it seems to be a name that references Nubia.  Were they Nubian dogs?  Fascinating.

But wait, there's more!  Fischer notes these horse names found in battle scenes from the late New Kingdom: "Amun Decrees Valor for Him," "Amun, He Gives Might," and "Amun Has Given Might." Then, hold on, we get to the war lion (yes, I said war lion):  "Slayer of His Foes."

poem for a lonely horse

Based on when this was published, I imagine this was inspired by a soldier who never returned from the Great War. . . 

Wounded and Missing.

The old bay mare is standing
Facing the setting sun :—
The orchard grass waves round her
And her work is nearly done.

She waits for a loving whisper,
Pricking a silken ear,
For the sound of a dear familiar voice
Which she never more may hear.

There’s a joyful whinny to greet him,
Soft eyes that watch and wait :
For the old bay mare is standing
Beside the orchard gate.

The worn old hoofs are weary,
The loving eyes are dim,
And the master she loves will come no more,
But she’s waiting still for him.

by "F." in Newbolt, Henry John, Sir, 1862-1938, Mary Lancaster Nott, and Kohler Collection of British Poetry. Animal Poems And Stories. London: H. Rees, 1916. 30.

friday various and sundry

Did you know it was Kentucky Derby weekend?   I didn't, but one of my favorite blogs did:  Strange Company has a horse-enriched Weekend Link Dump for just that reason.  Most of this week's links are not pet related, but a few are - and brilliant finds, I might add:
- Toodles, the Vintage Photo Time find of all time.  I am so envious.
- Regency-era horse terminology: it's a good weekend to know your horses.
- The Order of the Pug!
You really should go back and check out earlier Friday Link Dumps at Strange Company, too.  Lots more rare and strange links about pets and every random thing else to enjoy.

the beauty of loping

thanks wikiart.org (PD)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted this oil of a Horsewoman and Dog  around 1899.  It's short on exact detail, but huge on feeling and power.  The horsewoman is rendered sketchily, just a gray and black shadow atop the barrel-chested force of her chestnut mount (where are his ears, I wonder?).  Meanwhile, alongside, a dog curves in full lope, a form I know well from watching our own dog run at top speed and loving it.  This is all the more unexpectedly poignant when you recall the artist himself couldn't run.  How he must have missed being able.

robert southey muses on the dog in english

Romantic poet Robert Southey has been seen here at the Museum before.  Today we've got part of a letter in which he muses on how the English uses their animals as figures of speech, in which I came across the idea of a "horse-godmother" for the first time.

* * *

. . . I may here notice a remarkable use which the English make of the word horse. They employ it in combination to signify any thing large and coarse, as in horsebeans, horse-chestnut, horse-radish;—sometimes it is prefixed to a man's name as an epithet of ridicule; they say also horse-ant and horseleech; and, by a still stronger compound, I have heard a woman of masculine appearance called a horse-godmother.

Dog is used still more strangely in almost every possible sense; the wild rose is called dog-rose; the scentless violet, dog-violet. Jolly dog, is the highest convivial encomium which a man can receive from his companions; honest dog, is when he superadds some good qualities to conviviality; sad dog, is when he is a reprobate; dog is the word of endearment which an Englishman uses to his child, and it is what he calls his servant when he is angry; puppy is the term of contempt for a coxcomb, and bitch, the worst appellation which can be applied to the worst of women. A flatterer is called a spaniel, a ruffian is called a bull-dog, an ill looking fellow an ugly hound; whelp, cur, and mongrel, are terms of contemptuous reproach to a young man; and if a young woman's nose turns upward, she is certainly called pug. . . 

from Robert Southey, Letters from England (G. Dearborn, 1836) p. 398

one of the family

thanks wikimedia commons (PD:US) click to enlarge

That's the title of this luminous piece, dated 1880, by Frederick George Cotman (British; 1850-1920).  I'm sure no humble front room in any of those decades was ever as sundrenched and spotless as this.  That's not the point of such work: domestic genre art is about tugging the heartstrings toward how it could have, should have been.  By glossing up the best of our wishful memories, it may even prompt us to better behavior.  One of the Family received good notice when purchased by Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery in 1880, as it showed an example of kindness to animals in the treat being handed out to the horse.  Not every day one comes across a begging horse (do you see his fellow beggar?  Look at the young woman's lap).

the animals of wwi - #3 in the series by laura brown

library of congress pan 6a33974 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pan.6a33974

(Military horses on parade, July 4 1918.  Click here to see the photo at the original Library of Congress page, and much bigger!)
Museum friend Laura Brown has published #3 in her series on the animals of World War I.  This month she examines the huge role horses played in that war.  Do you think you know the whole story?  Bet you don't, and I think you will be surprised.  (Also sorry.  War is hell.)  Please read Laura's excellent article here.

this horse is getting away...with it?

 E-Goyomi (Horse and Hand Holding Brush), 1786-1787.
Color print, 4 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (11.5 x 9.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 37.445
no known restrictions on copyright

This capering horse is so cleverly drawn that the artist could not forbear to include his own gifted hand making the magic happen.  That in itself was enough to make me grin, but as it happens this Japanese print of 1786-7 has another goodie up its sleeve: it's an egoyomi, a calendar in which the names of the months are hidden in the work somewhere.  (Here is a good short introduction to the idea of egoyomi.)  I think some of the months' names are in the medallions to the sides; what about the others?  I think they are cleverly hidden in the horse himself.