Funny Renaissance Art GIFs by James Kerr

These animated GIFs are filled with crude humour and anachronistic imagery. Collage artist James Kerr, also known as Scorpion Dagger, brings the characters of Early Renaissance paintings together in absurd and funny situations, like playing pranks on each other or doing skateboarding tricks. I think the pictures that pair these ancient, often Biblical characters with modern technology — like a cat using Google Glass to decide where to sleep — are particularly funny.

I also appreciate the vast amount of time and creativity that goes into each work. As many as 20 or 30 classical paintings may be used as sources for each GIF, in addition to a variety of modern references. The work has some obvious political and religious meaning (with the choice of source materials) but also draws inspiration from internet memes and pop culture.

While many have compared his work to the animated parts of Monty Python shows, I also see a resemblance to the moving pictures of the Harry Potter world (where portraits of wizards can travel into other pictures and communicate with people outside) since Kerr says that he wants to create an entire world for these characters and to imagine what they do outside their usual paintings.