Art might be hundreds of years old, but sometimes it feels surprisingly modern. From paintings that look like movie stills to portraits that could easily pass as memes today, people online have been sharing artworks that seem way ahead of their time. And honestly, some of them might just make you do a double take.
A recent Reddit thread on r/ArtHistory invited people to share old paintings that feel modern or ahead of their time. It didn’t take long for the discussion to go viral, with history and art enthusiasts flooding the comments with mind-blowing examples from different centuries. Some of these pieces really make you feel like you’re looking at something created today.
You might be surprised too, so don’t waste any more time – scroll down to check out some of the most fascinating finds from the thread we picked just for you.
#1 "Young Hare (Feldhase)" By Albrecht Dürer, 1502
Dürer's "Hare" has always looked extremly 18-19th century to me, like Rosa Bonheur's or George Stubbs' works, for instance, but no, as you can very much see on the painting, it is actually from the Renaissance.
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25points
#3 "Four Studies Of The Head Of A Moor" By Peter Paul Rubens, Painted Between 1614 And 1616
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24points
#4 “Dog And Bridge” By Alex Colville, 1976
Alex Colville painted this in 1976, but it looks like a low-poly PS1 game render.
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23points
#5 “Portrait Of Vsevolod Garshin” By Ilia Repin, 1884
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23points
#8 “The Head Of A Youth,” Attributed To The Bolognese Artist Pietro Faccini, 1590
I saw this in an exhibition recently and it blew me away. Looks so contemporary but it’s Renaissance. Attributed to Pietro Faccini, The head of a youth, c.1590. Royal Collection Trust.
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19points
#10 “Smiling Girl, A Courtesan, Holding An Obscene Image” By Gerard Van Honthorst, 1625
This is a painting of a young woman pointing to a smaller painting of a butt and giggling. Apparently we’ve always been juvenile.
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18points
#12 “Allegorical Painting Of Two Ladies, English School,” A Rare 17th-Century Artwork From Around 1650-1655
1655, artist unknown. Two women wearing fun shaped beauty patches, very similar to the pimple patches worn today. The patches were meant to cover blemishes and scars.
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17points
#13 “The Little Street” By Johannes Vermeer, 1658
The way Vermeer rendered the buildings in 'The Little Street' always made me feel like it's some real place that exists right now, not 1657. Like one of the many little streets you can still find in European towns today.
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17points
#14 “Portrait Of Gunhild Gude” By Marie Gratz, 1877
Something about her face felt so modern to me that I saved this photo to my phone. How serendipitous to see this post!
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17points
#15 “Horse And Train” By Alex Colville, 1954
Alex Colville is one of my favourites – most of his work has an uncanny photo-realism feel to it, almost like it's a digital painting or something, even though most of his work was done in the mid-20th century, well before digital images. I'm not experienced with talking about art, so I hope that makes sense. Here is one of his most famous works, 'Horse and Train' from 1954. Considered to be one of the most recognizable pieces of Canadian art.
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16points
#16 A Drawing By Onfim, A Seven-Year-Old Boy Who Lived In The City Of Novgorod, Russia, In The Mid-13th Century (C. 1240–1260)
These are drawings rather than paintings, but they're from the 13th century by a 7-year-old boy named Onfim and look very similar to the drawings kids make today. I don't think that's necessarily surprising, but they're amazing little artifacts that pierce the veil of time and let us see something that feels really human in just how mundane they are. Kids' drawings are so disposable, it's wild to see any preserved. And moreover, to recognize 900-year-old doodles as familiar feels incredible to me. I can imagine this kid being so proud of his drawings, showing his family, friends, and neighbors on some regular afternoon in a world so different from ours.
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16points
