Art lovers fond of creature comforts will appreciate the programming at the Walters Art Museum, which is putting on three exhibitions over the next two years dedicated to the depiction of animals in art. The first is ‘Paws on Parchment’, which focuses on how medieval scribes and illustrators in Europe, Armenia and the Islamic world worked cats into their manuscripts (6 August–15 February 2026). Some of this comprises marginalia, but there are also more unusual cameos: one Flemish manuscript from the 1470s features real pawprints from a feisty feline that strutted across a double-page spread before the ink had dried. Cats were especially useful in the Middle Ages, keeping rodents away from food stores and hunting down plague-ridden vermin, and this exhibition captures the many ways in which medieval bookmakers expressed their appreciation.
Find out more from the Walters Art Museum’s website.
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