Girl with a Rose and a Cat

The painting was created by the Bolognese Giuseppe Maria Crespi, an ironic artist who loved genre scenes and was strongly attracted by the faces of the common people in his city.

It depicts a bewitching young girl clutching a cat to her chest and holding a rose very carefully, while her hypnotic gaze seduces the viewer as she stares directly into his eyes. The symbolic meaning is clear: the small animal and the flower, though beautiful, soft and delicate, both conceal hidden dangers. The claws and thorns suggest the perils of love.

On the small canvas, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, shows his ability to use painting to allude to the affinity between the woman and the cat in the triangular face, the expertly painted headdress with two points that look like small feline ears, and the elongated black eyes.

The artist, in this painting made up of areas of shadow and light, based on studies of Guercino's models, combines danger and beauty, giving an image to the saying “there is no rose without thorns” and succeeds in expressing the woman’s dual and ambiguous nature.