# The 16 Greatest Animal Symbols in Famous Paintings

> A lapdog can mean marriage and a black cat its opposite. Pick the creature that carries the most meaning in its painting.

*By YPB Team · Published October 24, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-16-greatest-animal-symbols-in-famous-paintings*

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## Current results (1 vote)

1. **The Dog of Venus of Urbino** — score 1000/1000
   The sleeping lapdog at the feet of Titian's Venus, which the Uffizi reads as fidelity in marriage.
2. **Olympia's Black Cat** — score 1000/1000
   Manet's arched black cat that replaced Titian's faithful dog and turned the meaning upside down.
3. **Raphael's Unicorn** — score 945/1000
   The tiny unicorn in Young Woman with Unicorn, a symbol of chastity painted over an earlier dog.
4. **The Arnolfini Dog** — score 862/1000
   The small terrier between the couple in van Eyck's 1434 portrait, often read as a sign of marital fidelity.
5. **The Fly on the Frame** — score 764/1000
   The painted fly on Petrus Christus's 1446 Portrait of a Carthusian, a trompe-l'oeil sign that the portrait is alive.
6. **Bassano's Cat by Judas** — score 764/1000
   The cat at Judas's feet in Jacopo Bassano's Last Supper, the traditional animal of evil next to the traitor.
7. **The Conjurer's Owl and Frog** — score 647/1000
   The owl in the magician's basket and the frog from the victim's mouth, Bosch's signs of blindness and the devil.
8. **The Ermine** — score 503/1000
   The animal in Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine, a nod to Ludovico Sforza, a sign of purity and a pun on the sitter's name.
9. **Fabritius's Goldfinch** — score 503/1000
   The chained pet bird in Carel Fabritius's 1654 painting, painted months before he died in the Delft explosion.
10. **Bruegel's Two Monkeys** — score 503/1000
   Two monkeys chained in a window over Antwerp, people bound to their instincts for a nutshell.
11. **Titian's White Rabbit** — score 503/1000
   The rabbit under Mary's hand in Madonna of the Rabbit, a sign of fertility and the Incarnation.
12. **Del Cossa's Snail** — score 503/1000
   The snail crawling along the bottom edge of Francesco del Cossa's Annunciation, as if on the frame itself.
13. **Raphael's Goldfinch** — score 0/1000
   The bird the infant John hands to Christ in the Madonna del Cardellino, a sign of the coming Passion.
14. **The Mystic Lamb** — score 0/1000
   The Lamb of God at the center of the Ghent Altarpiece, whose near-human face reappeared in the 2019 restoration.
15. **The Dog under Judas** — score 0/1000
   The dog gnawing a bone beneath Judas in Rubens's Last Supper, read as fidelity or as greed.
16. **Dürer's Four Temperaments** — score 0/1000
   The cat, rabbit, ox and elk in Dürer's 1504 Adam and Eve, standing for the four human temperaments.

Tags: painting, art, animals, symbolism