Wildcat 

Archibald Thorburn painted this "Wildcat," immortalizing it in a moment of primal triumph. The wildcat, teeth bared over its kill, embodies untamed ferocity and instinctual power. Consider the cat, its image echoing through the ages. From ancient Egyptian veneration of Bastet, the feline goddess, to the medieval associations with witchcraft and the demonic, the cat has long held a potent symbolic charge. The wildcat, though, is the more primal ancestor of our domestic companions. Note the bared teeth, an echo of the Gorgon's snarl, the mythical creature whose gaze turned men to stone. Both are visages of raw, untamed power, and the terror such power can invoke. Here, in this painting, Thorburn captures an instant of pure, instinctual energy. The wildcat, a symbol of nature's enduring strength, continues to prowl through our collective memory.