Now You Can Be An Art Expert With Bey & Jay's "APES**T" Music Video

Art History 101 with your parents, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

If you've been asleep under a heavy object for the entire weekend, you may have indeed missed the biggest news from the entertainment industry this year.

Music royalty Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z dropped a collaborative album, EVERYTHING IS LOVE, and, as they predicted, the internet is going apes**t.

The accompanying music video to their first single, "APES**T", features the iconic duo standing in front of many expensive artworks in Paris' Louvre (yes, they rented the mother-effing Louvre).

So, perhaps unwittingly (or maybe wittingly!) they've just educated an entire generation on the history of the Western world's most famous artworks.

With the help of a hawk-eye Twitter user, Queen Curly Fry (@itsmeheidi_h), here's a look at all the pieces that featured in the video and what they might symbolise in this context.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Here are the Carters standing in front of the Mona Lisa with their backs turned. It's important to note that they're not actually looking at the world's most famous painting and that you're actually looking at them.

Winged Victory of Samothrace by unknown

Here are Bey and Jay at the top of the steps near the famous Ancient Greek sculpture of Nike; the god of victory. They're standing in front of it because, you know, they're pretty victorious in every aspect of their life.

Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch

In front of the beautiful Venus de Milo, the Carters stand hand-in-hand. The statue is thought to depict the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite.

As Queen Curly Fry points out, Bey's nude bodysuit may be her way of reframing beauty in the black image over the sculpture's white-centric shape.

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

In The Coronation of Napoleon, Josephine is being crowned by Napoleon as she kneels. This action would usually be done by The Pope but he and the rest of the painting's occupants watch on.

Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David

In this frame, we see the Portrait of Madame Récamier with two black women sitting in front. Queen Curly Fry draws parallels between the women sitting down and Portrait of a Black Woman by Marie-Guillemine Benoist.

This portrait later became a symbol for emancipation and black women's rights so its symbolism here is important.

The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault

Lastly, there's Jay-Z in front of The Raft. This artwork depicts a raft that was hurriedly created after the shipwreck of Medusa. All 15 on the raft did not survive in real life but most notable is that a black man is at the pinnacle of the human mountain.

Now that you've had your art history lesson, reward yourself by bopping to the track below.