There are no mice in cave art. Stone age artists were too awed by mammoths to notice the tiny rodents. But by the time of the Roman empire, mice appear in mosaics, stealing the remnants of banquets while Roman cats fail to catch them. And mice have been depicted at play ever since, in just about every human habitat. One of their favourites is the artist’s studio: a messy setting with lots of materials, from the smelly to the potentially edible.
