Art: Eternal Theme

More cats than a critic could shake a pencil at were assembled in the rooms of New York's Maurel Gallery last week in one of the most amusing exhibitions of the season. Persian. Manx, Maltese, Siamese, Angora, tortoise-shell and tabby were all there in wood, pottery, glass, ivory, lead, bronze, marble, in oils, etchings, lithographs, water colors. Enthusiastic cat collectors and neighboring art galleries had loaned over 700 different representations of cats which, according to the Maurel Gallery's foreword, are one of the "eternal themes in art."

Listed in the general pussification was an original Rembrandt etching ("The Holy Family With Cat");...