Verbally Described Meme #72: Goya Cat Girl Devouring Her Master (Deep Dive)
Request by @kreamed.korn
Original artwork by @kirvia
Original post by @meaningful.images.only
An original illustration by the artist Kirvia, or Angela Choe, titled Koneko-tan devouring her master (2020). This illustration shows a catgirl in a maid's outfit frantically eating an eviscerated, diminutive human body in front of a stark black background. The work is a reference to Francisco Goya's arguably most famous painting Saturno devorando a su hijo, or Saturn Devouring his child. Many derivative works of Goya's painting exist in memes, particularly utilizing pop culture references. The reference here is of a cat girl, specifically Koneko-tan which in Japanese means Kitten. The honorific -tan is reflective of baby talk in english but also can be used, and is potentially used in this case to personify an ideal, or concept through Moe anthropomorphism. The ideal referenced here is "cat girls" as a concept and a whole. Cat girls were originally portrayed in Kenji Miyazawa's children's literature portrayed as a beautiful cat-eared woman. However it can be assumed that this idea was adopted from the concept of "Bakeneko", demon cats that have the power to shapeshift and become humanoid. The first representation in anime was The King's Tail in 1949, this was happening parallel to the development of Catwoman and Cheetah via DC comics in the united states. The concept of the Cat Girl has developed since through advancement in Japanese media and Otaku subcultures and has now developed to a point where they are a common trope in anime, a frequent subject for cosplay, and the original mascot for NekoCon, an anime convention in the United States. The cat girl in the original illustration is said to be devouring her master, this is in reference to the idea of domesticated cat girls, which was introduced in the series of visual novels, Nekopara. The series of visual novels reinforces that the domestication and servile nature is desired by the cat girls themselves despite them showing more girl characteristics rather than cat characteristics. A servile cat girl maid has become a common concept, and there's much discussion around genetic engineering being used to create cat girls. This last part has become a meme in and of itself with Elon Musk throwing in his two cents. The sexual aspect of modern depictions of cat girls is pervasive, and partnered with ownership is troublesome to say the least. The original art work can be seen as an uprising and liberation of the cat girl, as a concept, as they devour their master. Goya's original work was part of a series of paintings known as the black paintings. Formerly a successful court painter for royalty, he created these 14 paintings between the years of 1819 to 1822 in isolation following an undiagnosed illness that left him deaf and fearful of old age and madness. They were painted on the walls of a farm-house he lived within which was known as "La Quinta Del Sordo" or the House of the Deaf Man. He never spoke of them or exhibited them. 50 years after his death they were transferred to canvas, and the images we see today are, in the words of New York Times Contributor Arther Lubow "at best a crude facsimile of what Goya painted".