This year is the Year of the Rat. Of the 12 zodiac signs, the rat seems to be the most "unseen" animal, but it is undeniable that it has always been closely related to our lives throughout human history. Rats are wonderful creatures. It has a better sense of smell than cats and dogs, it is a good swimmer, and it has been found to be able to sing at ultrasound. Proverbs abound about rats, and most people think of them as insignificant creatures, but many artists have captured their characteristics, vividly portraying rats and depicting human nature: traits that are often very different: good and evil, industrious and lazy, timid and brave. With the Year of the Rat approaching, The Paper has found some works related to rats from foreign art, from which we can see how this tiny creature has been depicted and understood differently in art history.

Bronze rat statue from ancient Rome

Roman bronze rat statue, circa 1st-3rd century AD

In ancient Roman art, small bronze rat statues can often be seen. In the 1st and 2nd centuries of the park, many ancient Romans used bronze rat statues to decorate their homes. After the collapse of the vast Roman Empire, the statues were buried in the ashes of the empire, and over the past two or three hundred years, a large number of bronze rat statues have been excavated from Italy, Turkey, Syria, South Africa, and various parts of the Mediterranean coast. Usually used to decorate the lids of oil lamps or food containers, these statues are about 1 to 1.5 inches tall and are mostly crouched with nuts, crackers or fruit between their claws. In fact, such a decorative function is quite ironic, after all, rats have always been "experts" at stealing lamp oil and stealing food.

The Mouse in the Artist's Eyes: Motifs from Nature

"Rat", Shibata is true

Shibata was a Japanese lacquer artist, ink painter, and printmaker from the late Edo period to the early Meiji period. He experimented with lacquer on a technical level, mixing lacquer with various substances to achieve different colors and textures, while maintaining consistency and flexibility. He was fascinated by the intense oil paint in Western oil paintings, creating lacquer paintings on paper. In the case of "Rat", the black color of the ears is thick and neat, with a sense of volume. "Rats" is one of Shibata's favorite subjects, on the one hand, he was trained to paint by the Maruyama Shijo school, whose founder, Maruyama Oju, was good at drawing inspiration from nature; On the other hand, it may have been a sign of support for the merchant class in feudal Japan at the time, as rats were seen as "symbols of prosperity".

Shibata was both an advocate and a conservative of the Westernization movement, and this is also reflected in his paintings: although he drew nourishment from Western painting and carried out various technical experiments, he depicted traditional motifs in Japanese art.

"The Mouse and a Piece of Cheese," John Constable

As a motif from nature, the mouse is not only a common motif in Japanese art, but also a realistic object for Western artists. John Stable, one of the most important landscape painters of the 19th century, also focused his attention on the little mouse: in his 1824 work The Mouse and a Piece of Cheese, he depicted a cute little mouse, which he is said to have even named Jack. In his 1851 work Mariana, the former Raphaelite painter Joh Millais captures a mouse moving quietly, the sunlight shining through the tinted glass into the room, creating a sense of silence around a beautiful woman, and the inconspicuous mouse behind her adds a touch of interest and realism.

Mariana, by John Everett Milley

The "Mickey Mouse Effect"

As an important cultural symbol of the United States, Mickey Mouse, born in 1928, has influenced many contemporary artists.

In 2012, at the invitation of Disney, British artist Damien Hirst created a painting inspired by Mickey Mouse. In the painting, Hearst is only 12

Different dots depict Mickey Mouse, and dots are also an important element in his work. In his opinion, the charm of Mickey Mouse is that "he has been through a thousand changes, but he is always eternal", and even when he is translated into such a simple image, people can still recognize it. In February 2014, it sold for £900,000 at Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London.

"Mickey," Damian Hearst

Mickey Mouse is likewise the "muse" of Andy Warhol in pop art. In 1981, Warhol moved away from portraits of celebrities and instead created a collection of silkscreen prints of 10 fictional characters, titled Mythology, including Mickey Mouse. In this group of works, he presents the most influential themes of the era, which, like characters from ancient mythology, provoke the imagination of modern people. Instead of going back to distant civilizations, Warhol returned to the era when cinema was born, playing familiar characters.

"Mickey Mouse," Andy Warhol

Artists find childhood memories and inspiration in the warm image of Mickey Mouse, but perhaps more importantly, through the widespread recognition generated by Mickey Mouse, their art has had a huge influence and value. Kaws is also one of them. His most famous "playmate" (panion) is a transformation of the image of Mickey Mouse.

Playmates, Kaws

Rats and street art

Banksy is perhaps the most controversial street artist in the world today. For Banksys, rats have something in common with street art, as Blekrat, the first generation of street artists in Paris, France, who had an important influence on him, once said that rats are the only wild animals that infest cities and will continue to survive even if humans become extinct. Like rats, street art is witty and tenacious, but it is seen as a "cancer" of society. People are catching rats, and the government is trying to rid the streets of art. But just as rats often "get away with it", so too can the creativity of street artists. Banksy inherited this theme of Mouse Black, leaving a trail of "black rats" all over Britain with stencil prints. In one graffiti, he depicts a black mouse carrying a paint bucket and holding a paint brush in the other, and the top of the mouse is written in red paint: "Because I'm worthless." (becauseworthless) makes one wonder who is worthless?

"Rat" in Banksy's graffiti

"Rat" in Banksy's graffiti

In the general perception of society, the mouse represents a dirty image in the underground world, but on the other hand, in some film and television works, it is also regarded as an independent thinker and flexible actor, in addition, as an intelligent species, the mouse is often used in various psychological and pharmacological experiments. For Banksy, the rat symbolizes the regenerative power of street art, and no matter how much people criticize or destroy his art, he can find a new wall to "regenerate".

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Bronze rat statue from ancient Rome

This year is the Year of the Rat. Of the 12 zodiac signs, the rat seems to be the most "unseen" animal, but it is undeniable that it has always been closely related to our lives throughout human history. Rats are wonderful creatures. It has a better sense of smell than cats and dogs, it is a good swimmer, and it has been found to be able to sing at ultrasound. Proverbs abound about rats, and most people think of them as insignificant creatures, but many artists have captured their characteristics, vividly portraying rats and depicting human nature: traits that are often very different: good and evil, industrious and lazy, timid and brave. With the Year of the Rat approaching, The Paper has found some works related to rats from foreign art, from which we can see how this tiny creature has been depicted and understood differently in art history.

Bronze rat statue from ancient Rome

Roman bronze rat statue, circa 1st-3rd century AD

In ancient Roman art, small bronze rat statues can often be seen. In the 1st and 2nd centuries of the park, many ancient Romans used bronze rat statues to decorate their homes. After the collapse of the vast Roman Empire, the statues were buried in the ashes of the empire, and over the past two or three hundred years, a large number of bronze rat statues have been excavated from Italy, Turkey, Syria, South Africa, and various parts of the Mediterranean coast. Usually used to decorate the lids of oil lamps or food containers, these statues are about 1 to 1.5 inches tall and are mostly crouched with nuts, crackers or fruit between their claws. In fact, such a decorative function is quite ironic, after all, rats have always been "experts" at stealing lamp oil and stealing food.

The Mouse in the Artist's Eyes: Motifs from Nature

"Rat", Shibata is true

Shibata was a Japanese lacquer artist, ink painter, and printmaker from the late Edo period to the early Meiji period. He experimented with lacquer on a technical level, mixing lacquer with various substances to achieve different colors and textures, while maintaining consistency and flexibility. He was fascinated by the intense oil paint in Western oil paintings, creating lacquer paintings on paper. In the case of "Rat", the black of the ears is thick