The middle ages were definitely a different time, which we can clearly see reflected in their artwork. But even though we might not be able to relate to wielding swords, wearing fabulous dresses or having our villages pillaged, human nature stays the same, and some part of us can relate to the emotions experienced in these images. That’s why Official Medieval Reactions is so brilliant. It doesn’t matter what caused the people in these paintings to be upset, excited or scared, we can relate to the way they feel. And clearly, the Instagram page resonates with many people, as it has amassed over 140k followers.
In fact, the trend of meme-ing medieval art has become so popular that Alicia Eler, a writer for HyperAllergic, even published an article earlier this year dissecting why exactly medieval art is so meme-able. She first notes that the original intention of these pieces was not comedy at all, but as times change, we tend to find many things from the past humorous. The outfits our parents wore to prom, even the outfits we wore in middle school ourselves, don’t quite hold up to fashion standards today. But at the time, we looked fabulous. It’s important to keep in mind that the world was just a different place back then, and we now view these pieces of art through a very different lens.
“There’s something about the surprise of the medieval,” Sonja Drimmer, a scholar of medieval European art, and associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told HyperAllergic. “One of the conceptions about the European Middle Ages has to do with blind piety, prudishness, but when people see imagery that defies that, the disjunction leads to laughter.”
Many of us believe we have much more contemporary views on topics such as sex, relationships, and gender equality today, but the people of the middle ages might not have been as conservative as we imagine them to be. There are plenty of memes on Official Medieval Reactions featuring nudity, violence, drinking, and even intimate acts. I wonder what their parties were like...
“I think there is something about Western medieval art that seems like a safe target … some of the memes — like the side-eye horse, if it were sub-Saharan Africa — you could imagine meme-ifying it, and then imagine it becoming deeply problematic very quickly,” Erik Inglis, professor of Medieval art history at Oberlin College, told HyperAllergic. “I think with the very white faces of Western medieval art, it seems innocent. We are pretty willing to condescend to the Middle Ages, [which is] not fraught as it is to condescend to other ages.” I can see how the white subjects in these photos can be linked to first world problems today because it seems very familiar to see wealthy, white individuals complaining about the woes of being rich and not having the world revolve around them. Although it wasn’t the initial intention with these pieces of art, it is fun to imagine these people as entitled, out of touch celebrities.
“Medieval imagery is so phone-friendly,” Cem A., an artist and curator who runs the popular art meme page @freeze_magazine, and curatorial assistant at Documenta 15, told HyperAllergic. “For me, its style is more simplified, representational, and cartoonish than our classical understanding of painting. Figures in these images usually have exaggerated (and therefore easier to grasp) relationships onto which you can build a meme. Its aesthetics works better on the compact screens of smartphones.” Also a great point; why draw up a cartoon or create a meme from scratch when you have two people in the frame already? Similar to how stock images make great meme bases, such as the famous distracted boyfriend photo meme and the man holding a cup of coffee while smiling meme, all it takes is a simple image with one or more people showing emotion, and you’ve got an excellent meme canvas.
Aside from how well it fits into many memes, medieval art is still important to us today. Many people love watching films and reading books set in fictional versions of these times, and if we want to have fantasy worlds that have even slightly realistic qualities, it’s important to actually understand those times. “We all know what brings students and museumgoers through our doors,” says Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America, the world’s largest medieval studies advocate. “'Game of Thrones,' Lord of the Rings, 'Vikings,' Harry Potter, film, even 'Dungeons & Dragons' and pseudo-medieval video games all feed the flames of medieval fandom. It's our job to take that enthusiasm and direct it toward productive and fact-based pedagogy."
If you’re interested in learning more about medieval art, you might need to invest a decent amount of time into your studies. “One of the barriers to cultivating a passion for medieval art among modern viewers is that we are looking at objects that are deeply decontextualized,” says Nicole Meyers, curator of European painting and sculpture. “Whether fragments of architectural elements that originated in Gothic cathedrals or liturgical objects that have been isolated from the rich environments in which they would have been used and observed by medieval men and women.” It’s fun to spin these paintings into modern context, but it can be nice to understand the actual background of the images as well.
