“It’s The Meme Renaissance” — 67 Classical Art Memes
Four years ago, I made a decision. A bold, expensive, “this will surely pay off” decision to study art history.
I learned about chiaroscuro. I can tell you what makes a composition Baroque versus Renaissance. I once wrote eleven pages on the use of negative space in a single Caravaggio. My professors said I had “a real eye.”
That eye now has exactly one job: looking at a classical art meme and going “ah yes, that’s Bronzino’s Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, circa 1545” while everyone else just laughs at the caption.
The student loans are still very much alive. They text me monthly.
But every time one of these memes crosses my feed and I can name the artist, the period, and the museum it’s currently hanging in, I feel a small spark of vindication.
This is what I trained for. This is the moment. A 500-year-old painting with the words “me when” slapped on top, and I, scholar, am ready.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
