Dublin Core
Title
Mouse
Identifier
51
Symbol Item Type Metadata
Symbol name
Mouse
Symbol Description
In western art, symbolism ranges from destruction to fertility. Clearly it is associated with avarice and greed because of is destruction of stores. It was linked most of all with extreme fertility, and sometimes lechery. With the cat, represents predator and prey, and in Durer's engraving "Fall of Man" (Adam and Eve) symbolizes the opposition of male and female forces.
In the middle ages, was also a symbol of the soul, and sometimes the soul was said to leave through the mouth in mouse form when a person died.
Sources
1) Hope B. Werness. The Continuum encyclopedia of animal symbolism in art: Mouse, p. 286.
http://books.google.com/books?id=iBSDddO-9PoC&lpg=PA272&ots=wHBtkmzjSs&dq=cat%20and%20mouse%20symbolism%20renaissance&pg=PA286#v=onepage&q&f=false
2)Albrecht Drer (German, Nuremberg 1471 - 1528 Nuremberg)
The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve)
B. 1; Dodgson 39 iv/v; Meder 1 ii a; Panofsky 108, 1504
Inscribed and dated in plate, on cartellino at upper left 1
Engraving
9 3/4 x 7 9/16 in. (24.9 x 19.2 cm)
Gift of the Max Kade Foundation, 1967
Allen Memorial Art Museum 67.33
http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/Durer_Fall.htm