medieval memes

Absolutely anything can be meme'd, including 17th century Byzantine paintings and dramatic Baroque portraits. Your art history teacher might disagree, but we think some of these old gems were meant to be meme'd. We might go so far as to say that becoming a meme was the true calling for some of these paintings and now, after centuries, the true fate of art is finally being realized. Okay maybe we're getting a bit carried away, but why don't you take a look at these hilarious art memes and decide for yourself.

Artists have been revered for creating works of beauty for thousands of years - but do you think brush-wielding monks in medieval Europe had any idea their painstaking efforts would be used for the unholy humor of memes? Chances are they didn't. These memes may have absolutely nothing to do with the art's intended purpose, but we think they add historical and cultured edge to an art form that's only been around for a couple decades. They're a beautiful merging of old and new, and (most importantly) they're funny as hell.

Throughout the history of civilization, art has been an unparalleled tool for understanding the zeitgeist of a given era. Call us crazy, but we like to think that memes are a lot like classical paintings if you think about them as cultural documents of the time. A lot of art from the past have even been reappropriated into memes. The scenes captured in Medieval and Neoclassical paintings often depict expressive and dramatic characters that one would be crazy not to try and meme today. Was Caravaggio just a pioneer of the Baroque or was he actually a 17th century memelord? We've got a bunch of great classical art memes that prove art is truly timeless.

We've come a long way, baby. These medieval medical drawings might paint a pretty gruesome picture of medieval healthcare - but they definitely make for some solid memes.