The Morning Visitor

About

The Morning Visitor refers to a surrealist painting depicting a strange spiky creature violating a young woman and entering her by Italian artist Dino Buzzati. The artwork went viral on X / Twitter in mid-June 2024, with some users utilizing the last panel of it as a caption format, which triggered discourse about the ethicality of using the artwork as a meme. Online, the shape has sometimes been referred to as "Squiggles".

Origin

In 1963, Italian painter and writer Dino Buzzati completed his surrealist painting The Morning Visitor (it. Il Visitatore del Mattino).^[1] The painting, which is split into eight smaller paintings comprising a continuous narrative, depicts a story of a young woman named Daniela who wakes up in the morning and is cleaning her house when an intruder, depicted as a surreal spiky shape, enters her house. The last three panels of the painting show the shape grabbing and entering the woman as she screams, and leaving her body deformed after the shape.

Daniela was cleaning the house when a strange person arrived. He grabbed her, used violence against her, and literally entered her, leaving her deformed.

Prior to June 2024, the painting went viral online several times. Notably, on August 17th, 2023, Tumblr^[2] user somaticvisionsposted the artwork, with the post gaining over 11,400 likes and reblogs in 10 months. On December 30th, X^[3] user @darlingg1itter posted it, commenting, "[it] really haunts me." The post garnered over 7,900 reposts and 74,000 likes in six months.

On June 15th, 2024, X^[4] user @ddoniolvalcroze posted the painting, with the post garnering over 27,000 reposts and 224,000 likes in 10 days.

Spread

On June 18th, 2024, X^[5] user @eupempes posted a caption meme based on the format, a How the Email Finds Me meme (original post since removed; shown below, left). Later on June 18th, X^[6] user @doemisu quoted the post, expressing her displeasure with the choice of painting by commenting, "I […] hate all of you maybe." The post (shown below, right) garnered over 9,800 reposts and 205,000 likes in six days.

In the following days, more users used the last panel of the painting as a caption format, with other users expressing concerns over the ethical aspects of using a painting depicting assault as a meme format.

On June 18th, 2024, X^[7] user @gapjildefender posted a caption meme that gained over 1,000 reposts and 1,500 likes in six days (shown below, left). On June 19th, X^[8] user @blondedollvivi quoted the post with a PSA about the original painting depicting assault. The post (shown below, right) gained over 35,000 reposts and 400,000 likes, with some users alleging^[9] that it was botted.

Despite the discourse, the painting saw more use as a caption format in late June 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References