Painting by Hieronymus Bosch in Russian Internet memes

Abstract

Internet memes are an integral part of online communication, reflecting the mood of a part of society through the combination of image, text and implied context of use. Memes based on pictorial works make it possible to fit the paintings of old masters into the context of contemporary social discussions. Memes reinterpreting the legacy of Hieronymus Bosch have a distinctive place in the system of such knowledge of art, which is supported by the fact that the artist belonged to two epochs at a time, the Middle Ages and early Modern Times, which allows the Web user to recode meanings more actively. Based on the concept of the Internet meme as a creolized text, the semantic productivity of referring to Bosch’s legacy is discovered. It is demonstrated that the perception of Bosch is not reduced to an emphasis on the strangeness or ambiguity of his images. On the contrary, the users of the Web penetrate beyond the surface of individual images and uncover the reflection in them of the crisis epoch, in particular, of the aesthetic and ethical breakdown. Bosch’s images allow for the interpretation of an unpredictable world and new ethical imperatives of social life.