What is the secret of the strange shape of cats in medieval paintings?

Have you ever tried drawing a cat? It's not as easy as you'd expect it to be? This was certainly the case with medieval artists, despite their skill in portraying religious scenes, kings and people's daily lives, but drawing cats was a different challenge for them.

While most of them painted the basic shape of the cat, the face was their biggest problem. Instead of the beautiful cats we know and love, artists in the past seem to choose a bleak, almost human appearance that makes them look scary.