#Weird art in medieval manuscripts full

People made paintings of them, sketched them in their free time, and even sketched them in pictures of Jesus Christ.

#Weird art in medieval manuscripts full

But more often than not, they’d have bent themselves into a full circle just to make sure they’d really get their tongues right in there. The medieval era left us a strangely voluminous collection of pictures of cats licking their own butts. Instead, they believed that there was only one moment worthy enough to be immortalized in a work of art: the moment when a cat leans over and licks its own anus. Except they didn’t really focus on the cute, cuddly part as much. Medieval artists drew tons of pictures of cute, cuddly felines just like we do today. Photo credit: Ĭat pictures have been around for a lot longer than the Internet. “Even if the foolishness of it all occasions no shame, at least one might balk at the expense.” Only one medieval monk ever commented on it, and as far as he was concerned, his fellow monks were just wasting time and ink.

So the monks would pass long, boring days scribbling pictures of the rabbits’ inevitable uprising. They thought the idea of rabbits getting their revenge on the humans that hunted them was funny. The theory is that they were just etched in the margins by bored monks who wanted to amuse themselves. There are pictures of rabbits charging into battle, mutilating knights, dragging off women, beating people with clubs, and cutting people up with axes-and they never have anything to do with the words in the books. Rabbits hurting people is a weirdly common theme in medieval art, and nobody’s really sure why. And sometimes, they’d just draw rabbits hitting people in the head. Sometimes, they would add depth to the words by illustrating the stories. Sometimes, they would fill the page with beautiful patterns of flowers and ivy. Medieval monks were put to work making “illuminated manuscripts”-holy books in which every page was filled with beautiful works of art.