About

Michelangelo at 26, Bernini at 23 refers to a series of social media posts parodying a tweet about Renaissance sculptors Michelangelo and Bernini creating some of their best works at a relatively young age. In memes, the post is captioned with various jokes, such as the personal achievements of modern artists and esports players being likened to those of the two sculptors. The format is similar to the Michelangelo Was Only 24 Years Old meme, which went viral in November 2019.

Origin

On January 18th, 2025, the X^[1] account @X_ArtGallery posted close-up photographs of parts of two sculptures: David by Michelangelo, started when the artist was 26 years old and finished when he was 29, and The Abduction of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, finished when he was 23 years old. The post (shown below) received over 164.4 million views, 22,000 reposts and 92,000 likes in 10 days. The account previously made the same post several times in 2024.^[2][3]

On January 18th, 2025, X^[4] user @_Abelard_ posted the earliest discovered meme based on the template, a caption meme humorously subverting the meaning of the post that gained over 27,000 reposts and 428,000 likes in 10 days (shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the post became a prevalent subject of caption memes, with users quoting the post with comparisons, often humorous, to various modern works and achievements.

For example, on January 21st, 2025, X^[5] user @SantanaelChan posted a Chainsaw Man meme that garnered over 780 reposts and 11,000 likes in one week (shown below).

On January 22nd, 2025, X^[6] user @LadPsycho captioned the post with the Elmo Freestyle meme, writing, "Duwap Kaine at 9." The post (shown below) received over 3,000 reposts and 30,000 likes in one week.

Duwap Kaine at 9pic.twitter.com/cCB7g6lhDZ https://t.co/QvWsTcntjs

— Dr Shrimp Puerto Rico ☘️🇧🇷🔻 (@LadPsycho) January 22, 2025

The format maintained popularity on X / Twitter through late January 2025.

Various Examples

Yung Lean at 16 yo https://t.co/afgPjyqxcn pic.twitter.com/nBKCmBHGCg

— han (@8balIer) January 23, 2025

Search Interest

External References