The Accidental Renaissance in that Trump/Pelosi Photo

On October 17, 2019, The White House released an image from a contentious meeting between Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump. Trump quickly tweeted the image with the caption "Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown!" and Pelosi responded by using the same photo as her Twitter cover art, writing, "Thanks for the new cover photo realDonaldTrump!"

The image quickly went viral – not only because of the use and subsequent appropriation – but because it fell into the category of #accidentalrenaissance, a designation for images that evoke renaissance-style paintings.

In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Sarah and Allen delve into the ambiguity raised by the dual use of the photos, and talk about other political images that have been even more successful in evoking the #accidentalrenaissance like David Butow's incredible 2018 image of Senators Jeff Flake and Chris Coons during the Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation hearings.