A bit late to the party but we felt this twitter account deserves all the praise and exposure it gets. Weird Medieval Guys covers weird medieval art, and we really do mean weird. Run by Olivia M. Swarthout, this account is now our guilty pleasure. With daily updates with the weirdest artistic visions you could think of – we had to be very careful with our selections, some are reaaaaaally out there – we can guarantee you won’t get bored.
1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Baby meets his mother, mother meets her baby, no one is pleased. Once you get past their surprised expression, the odd worm-shaped baby makes you take a second look.
2. Body & Soul
We can safely assume the artist behind this masterpiece portrayed the souls leaving the body from his imagination but dear God, couldn’t he have painted them in a better light?
3. The Big Surprise
Just imagine entering the room only to find your significant other in THIS state… Questions are raised, hands are up in the air, only the head is nowhere to be seen.
4. The Nude Strawberry Worshippers
This is a hard one to unpack. What exactly is happening there? Why is the strawberry ginormous? Why are they not clothed? Why are they in awe?
5. Party like it’s the 1300s
And yes, ignore the obvious anatomical flaws, the one who painted this either had zero knowledge of the human body or simply decided to ignore all guidelines.
6. Book Club Material
Nothing strengthens a friendship better than reading with your bestie. Bonus points if your bestie is a cat/monkey thing.
7. The Odd Duo
And again, these look like they were painted by 5 year olds during a tantrum. The frog has no front legs, the mouse has cricket legs, and the rat attempts to pull a dance move. The more you look, the weirder it gets.
8. The Chuckle For Days Drawing
We like how people those days seemed to approach all subjects, no holds barred. They woke up feeling like drawing a wild boar dressed in cool pants – it was the 1400s so no denim yet – and executed exactly that.
9. The Reader
A weirdly fun way to portray dogs: covered by a blanket, with a hat, reading a book all while having a weird grin. How cool would it be if this would get traction and people will start recreating this trend with their own doggo?
10. One Cool Dude
Is he excited? Is he terrified? What’s up with the snake that seems to devour him? We need to know the whole story.
11. Mid Of The Week Mood
The guy doesn’t care, it’s like he’s dead inside. Or people back then were pretty bad at portraying emotions.
12. The CSI Rabbits
Get used to seeing rabbits in weird scenarios, weird medieval art and rabid rabbits seem to go hand in hand.
13. A Nun Cat
If you’re the cat type you have to print and frame this one, it’s too darn good!
14. The Cutie
We’re sure people in the 1200s knew how bats looked. Was this part of a move to make bats seem less eerie? Did they organize a protest? We don’t know but we’re here for all of it.
15. Forever After
Captioned “death with dignity”, this one has a rather positive vibe to it. And it’s only natural that death has bagpipes and not a scythe, way more accurate.
16. The Hipster
This was the guy everyone wanted to party with, we can put our money on it!
17. Deja Vu aka Monk Cats
Cats as monks seems to be a recurring theme. This one seems to have insect legs, just for fun.
18. Demons, Demons, Everywhere
Two-faced demons attacking a monastery? I see an arrow shot into the wall but no archer in sight.
19. The Fat Hedgehog That Could
He should start a thread with unrequested hedgehog pics and this one should be first. Apparently people loved these cuties even in the 15th century and that’s easy to tell by the way they’re portrayed: cute and round, without lethal weapons and weird facial expressions.
20. Yes, A Dog
By the look of this you would be sure to bet that the artist saw a dog just once while it was running in a field, in distance and tried to come up with an art piece to portray it. And that middle part hairstyle makes it look like he belongs in a boyband in the mid 90s.
21. Funky Frog
Swag, you either have it or you don’t. Or when Friday night vibe kicks in.
22. A Rare Bird
A surveillance system? The after effect of shrooms? Your guess is as good as ours.
23. Alexander The Great
The original caption says it all: “my favorite medieval story is the one about how alexander the great wanted to see the world, so he built a contraption to dive underwater and brought his cat and chicken to explore the ocean with him :)”
24. A Different Kind of Rat Pack
Ratings gearing up towards a guys night out. They even have the father figure type, a rather big oaf that’s there to get them into even more trouble.
25. The Badass Monk
I can almost hear him “Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about this new wicked game? It’s legit and all, I swear!”
26. Animalia Wrestling
Playful fun or a hunting sesh gone bad, it really doesn’t matter. The amount of details that went into this, the brushwork, the king’s clothes, this took a lot of time and dedication.
Jousting animals, weird contexts, dogs that aren’t dogs, Weird Medieval Guys is about all the weird stuff that you might dream about when you go to bed at 5am only to be forced to wake up an hour or so later. It’s full of humor, history, sarcasm and a whole lot of art.
Recommended reading next: Weird ancient weapons
FAQ
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If you’re the Instagram type, @weirdmedievalguys is the place to go with a follow.
