This parliamentary fist fight is actually mathematic perfection

It’s been such a tense year for Ukrainian/Russian relations that recently tensions in the Ukrainian Parliament erupted into an all-out brawl between proponents of the Communist and nationalist sides of the dispute. As staff looked on in boredom and syndicate photographers snapped away, Parliament members and protesting members of the pro-Russian opposition movement punched it out. Some were later hauled away by police.

But if that sounds intense, don’t worry, because the Internet was there to do what the Internet does best: turn the moment into a cause for celebration.

What is there to celebrate about a serious European peace conflict? The photography. Specifically, this picture, snapped by an unknown Reuters photographer.

Imgur user tajanstvenix recognized the picture’s classical composition. “Parliamentary masterpiece,” they wrote on their gallery. Then they proceeded to illustrate:

The composition of the layout of this photo uses a perfect Fibonacci ratio, or the Golden Ratio, better known to most of us for producing the Golden Spiral. The Golden spiral is generally considered one of the most elegant natural forms, which obviously makes it the perfect zen counter to the chaos unfurling behind the camera lens.

And it gets even better when you add a frame:

Voila! A perfect late Renaissance / early Baroque masterpiece.

The “painting” promptly went viral, prompting some Twitter users to point out their own modern photographic masterpieces:

Another renaissance painting is this picture of Lampard after he scored following the death of his mum. pic.twitter.com/EVc5etb9x8

— Dan Sully (@dan_sully) August 6, 2014

Compare to this detail from Raphael’s The Deposition:

@dan_sully @rosieswash and this one’s like Caravaggio’s Taking of the Christ pic.twitter.com/n8DfPtRgRo

— Paul MacInnes (@PaulMac) August 6, 2014

By george, he’s not wrong:

As for us, we couldn’t help notice that another picture from the Parliament fight was also particularly ready for framing. This shot was snapped by an unknown AP/Getty photographer during the melee.

Observe that perfect composition:

Remind you of anything?

So maybe the parallels aren’t perfect. But it’s good to know that when things get dire, we can still take a moment to appreciate the aesthetics of the current international political crisis.

Illustration by Aja Romano