This Tumblr Dedicated To Ugly Babies In Renaissance Paintings Is The Funniest Thing You’ll See All Day
The Renaissance is often perceived as the period of the noblest traditions, but some artists from that time had repeatedly been doing something that looks somewhat sinister nowadays - they painted our beloved beautiful babies like mini versions of old men. Tumblr account 'Ugly Renaissance Babies' is doing exactly what its name suggests - collecting the ugliest baby artworks from the said era, hilariously proving that some painters probably had never laid their eyes on a cute, fat baby. On the other hand, this weird Renaissance art depiction of baby Jesus might stem from the belief that he was born formed like an adult and didn't change much growing. Following this, all the other ugly babies were painted in the same manner.
From rock-hard abs to getting stoned like a gravel road, these Benjamin Button fellas seem to be hitting puberty a lot faster than we did. Scroll down to poke some fun at the Renaissance paintings, er, I mean, learn some art history and vote for your favorite funny babies!
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Is it a baby? Is it a sausage roll? Who knows. Either way, it's far too scary to risk giving it your tit!
That's what happen when you are pregnant for 5 years regarding the size of that baby !
I love how intense Princess Leia is over there washing... preparing a bath...? Lookit her eyes!
She's probably just terrified by the sight of the demon spawn coming out of her belly like that... I would be XD
Load More Replies...Maybe she's born with it... Maybe it's Maybelline
Load More Replies...And I am a nurse. I confirm that washing ones hands is just as important as holding the patient down
Whoa, those boobs! The maid's eyes! The wallpaper and curtains look so real, and then the people look so, dead! And you can see the sketch of the pregnant woman's feet through the sleeve of the maid! What?!!
I watched the reflection on the theatre lights of my section (which seemed incredibly surreal) and yes, it's accurate :D
Now I'm sorry I didn't get to watch mine! Might explain my kids....
Load More Replies...As a doctor I can assure you that this is completely accurate..we call this 'Caesarean section a la Renaissance'
Take that back! Please tell me that isn’t true
Load More Replies...The 'baby' has a good pair of cycling legs. The mother is probably glad that he didn't pop out in the natural manner or she'd be looking like a badly packed kebab down below
Forget the incision, the size of the kid would have killed her anyway!
congratulations, you've just given birth to a tiny 35 year old man.
I like that Portal sorta thing. And what exactly is that other woman washing there?
She's pouring boiling water... there's a birth going on here! Who brought the towels?
Load More Replies...Why is that five year old standing in that poor woman's incision? That isn't very sanitary.
The midwife looks like she's glancing at a clock like "Jesus, would you look at the time!"
This is of course a hilarious and insightful comment which I, for one, could stand to read every two minutes. Which is just as well.
Load More Replies...And here I thought Mary and Joseph were the only ones present at the birth. Who, then performed the surgery?
A woman who looks like Princess Leia is like, "Don't worry honey, this is very normal. Wait a minute, I'll just prepare the bath for the baby. " The woman wearing the white scarf holding the baby is like, "Oh gosh, another grown up baby... " The woman giving birth is like nothing, because she's taking a nap. And the baby is already tired of life.
The hair should not be so long on the baby. There is no blood and tooo wide a whole.
Well c-section explain why she's supposed to still be a virgin after her delivery.... I guess
I think you need a course in basic anatomy and physiology. As does the artist.
Load More Replies...Oh my... The woman's face isn't half bad, but what the hell happened with that thing on her shoulder?
*record scratch, freeze frame* yup that's me. you're probably wondering how I got in this situation.
*derp intensifies* no choild. stahp. yuo doing meh a concern. no heckin bamboozle.
My oh My! at first I thought they were just painting his nails which is strange because that would mean that he has three feet. I need more sleep..
"My lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare. And may I say King Leonidas, you legs are so smooth."
Looks like a little merman... or those paper thingies people put on turkey legs. Just looked it up: turkey booties or turkey frills. Okay.
Well, dont laugh so hard. people posting on social media look the same or worse than these demonic babies if not for the Photoshop . Yes, you too
At medicine faculty, our professor told us about unintended depicting of different diseases on rennaisance and baroq paintworks. This is Klippel-Feil syndrome.
This is the first picture where the children look like actual children, not like something from a horror movie.
Whao! well Saint Anne being Jesus Grand-Ma, her grip explain all the muscle the baby seems to have: Jesus inherit her super muscular strenght
I dunno who or what is holding the baby Jesus. But it's got too many fingers!
Did they ever actually met a baby? This is not a baby, this is a very small adult
Baby Jesus is squishing that poor bird (a barn swallow?), and it looks like he's got another one in his mouth.
The captions disappointed me. Some of the pictures held way more potential.
Nothing stopping you adding your own to the comments underneath the pics. I await your inspired witticisms...
Load More Replies...Wow. We've come along way in the art of painting babies... That's what I took from this.
I think that all those artists painted their own faces on the babies. Haha
I guess some were painted by monks who didn't have a lot of women or babies around.
Load More Replies...Omg, those would probably give me nightmares. Were the babies so ugly back in those days. I mean, they are babies, you can't expect them to be handsome but never the less...
Well Christ was supposed to have been born looking like an adult and other paintings then copied that man baby style. It's only recently that we thought of babies as cute.
Load More Replies...It is interesting how little most of these babies look like their mothers.
Actually, youngest babies just plain didn't live very long. Mothers were NOT keen on dragging them around to monasteries or messy studios. Heads weren't painted at the same time as bodies which were usually of older toddlers.
Goddamit, this should be in the deep web .. Well, good old middle ages, when even babies were creepy and horrifying as much as everything else.
How come human beings couldn't paint or draw an accurate image (I'm not saying these are but hey're getting there) of a human figure until the Renaissance? People in ancient times could sculpt accurately, almost at the level of modern times. But two-dimensional art by modern standards took millenia to progress from stick figures to child-like drawings to cartoon-like pictures to accurate representations to photorealistic drawings. The only answer I ever got was that artists and art collectors followed the style of the times so the accurate stuff is lost to history. I don't buy that malarkey. Any ideas?
Hello Black Dahlia, good question. I think (but can't say with 100% certainty) that it could be because the artists from the 300s until the Renaissance had different aesthetic priorities. The Roman Empire and the High Renaissance on tended to be more interested in the physical world and therefore valued an empirical, sensory based approach to art. Whereas starting with the introduction of Christianity in the late Roman Empire and persisting well into the late Medieval period, artists considered the senses as illusory (similar to Plato in many ways) and potentially leading us to sin, and Heaven preferable to the suffering, pain and shame of earthly life. As a result, they were more interested in symbolic depiction, rather than realistically rendering the subject, which to them was of low priority.
Load More Replies...I dunno what people are talking about. These are incredibly apt depictions of human babies.
I couldn’t agree more! Beyoncé should’ve hired an artist like these to paint her maternity pictures.
Load More Replies...Whenever I'm feeling down I look at ugly Renaissance babies' pictures and they make it all better. It's like the artists were not even trying anymore.
My parents ALWAYS sent these museum cards at Christmas. As a child , I always found these infants super ugly, &, some even scared me !
Babies can be ugly... Why shouldn't art reflect that? I've seen several ugly babies/kids today in the underground.
The dearth of art history education in this source fails to surprise. Idiot.
people seriously enjoy this? well to each their own i guess.....
The comments do nothing for me, but I do like looking at art fails.
Load More Replies...Why do liberals hate Christianity so much? Because Christian doctrine doesn't fit to their extreme agenda. Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!! That should get Libs riled up lol.
Because too many christians no longer follow Christ's teachings. Christianity today is no more than pissing other people off, as your lame comment proves.
Load More Replies...I am officially so disgusted. Couldn't even finish this post till the end!
The captions disappointed me. Some of the pictures held way more potential.
Nothing stopping you adding your own to the comments underneath the pics. I await your inspired witticisms...
Load More Replies...Wow. We've come along way in the art of painting babies... That's what I took from this.
I think that all those artists painted their own faces on the babies. Haha
I guess some were painted by monks who didn't have a lot of women or babies around.
Load More Replies...Omg, those would probably give me nightmares. Were the babies so ugly back in those days. I mean, they are babies, you can't expect them to be handsome but never the less...
Well Christ was supposed to have been born looking like an adult and other paintings then copied that man baby style. It's only recently that we thought of babies as cute.
Load More Replies...It is interesting how little most of these babies look like their mothers.
Actually, youngest babies just plain didn't live very long. Mothers were NOT keen on dragging them around to monasteries or messy studios. Heads weren't painted at the same time as bodies which were usually of older toddlers.
Goddamit, this should be in the deep web .. Well, good old middle ages, when even babies were creepy and horrifying as much as everything else.
How come human beings couldn't paint or draw an accurate image (I'm not saying these are but hey're getting there) of a human figure until the Renaissance? People in ancient times could sculpt accurately, almost at the level of modern times. But two-dimensional art by modern standards took millenia to progress from stick figures to child-like drawings to cartoon-like pictures to accurate representations to photorealistic drawings. The only answer I ever got was that artists and art collectors followed the style of the times so the accurate stuff is lost to history. I don't buy that malarkey. Any ideas?
Hello Black Dahlia, good question. I think (but can't say with 100% certainty) that it could be because the artists from the 300s until the Renaissance had different aesthetic priorities. The Roman Empire and the High Renaissance on tended to be more interested in the physical world and therefore valued an empirical, sensory based approach to art. Whereas starting with the introduction of Christianity in the late Roman Empire and persisting well into the late Medieval period, artists considered the senses as illusory (similar to Plato in many ways) and potentially leading us to sin, and Heaven preferable to the suffering, pain and shame of earthly life. As a result, they were more interested in symbolic depiction, rather than realistically rendering the subject, which to them was of low priority.
Load More Replies...I dunno what people are talking about. These are incredibly apt depictions of human babies.
I couldn’t agree more! Beyoncé should’ve hired an artist like these to paint her maternity pictures.
Load More Replies...Whenever I'm feeling down I look at ugly Renaissance babies' pictures and they make it all better. It's like the artists were not even trying anymore.
My parents ALWAYS sent these museum cards at Christmas. As a child , I always found these infants super ugly, &, some even scared me !
Babies can be ugly... Why shouldn't art reflect that? I've seen several ugly babies/kids today in the underground.
The dearth of art history education in this source fails to surprise. Idiot.
people seriously enjoy this? well to each their own i guess.....
The comments do nothing for me, but I do like looking at art fails.
Load More Replies...Why do liberals hate Christianity so much? Because Christian doctrine doesn't fit to their extreme agenda. Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!! That should get Libs riled up lol.
Because too many christians no longer follow Christ's teachings. Christianity today is no more than pissing other people off, as your lame comment proves.
Load More Replies...I am officially so disgusted. Couldn't even finish this post till the end!