Picture Pastiche

Some iconic images turn up again and again in media. You probably already know them, even if you've never seen the original.

Contrast with Pieta Plagiarism, Sistine Steal and Art Imitates Art. In those cases, the idea is not bring back the original to our minds, but to impress us with the ideas they convey.

Examples:

Visual Art

 * The Mona Lisa, American Gothic, The Scream, The Thinker, Pieta...
 * Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
 * The Last Supper
 * Night Hawks:
 * Andy Warhol's soup cans in Solve the Soup Cans.
 * Botticelli's Birth of Venus, a.k.a "that naked lady standing on the seashell."
 * The Venus de Milo.
 * Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory ("Melting Clocks")
 * Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night
 * The Statue of Liberty and Mt. Rushmore.
 * The Eiffel Tower.
 * The Son of Man, also known as That Creepy Guy With An Apple Floating In Front Of His Face.
 * Dogs Playing Poker.
 * The Spirit of '76

Comics

 * Action Comics #1 - Superman ruins someone's roadtrip.
 * Fantastic Four #1 - The FF ruin some monster's kill-everyone-trip.
 * Spider-Man swinging by with a crook under his arm on the cover of Amazing Fantasy # 15.
 * Spider-Man #50 - Spider-Man gives up crime fighting, by throwing his mask into the garbage. It was even referenced in the second movie.
 * Spider-Man #33 last pages and cover - Spider Man has to lift a lot of rubble to get the drugs his aunt needs.
 * Batman #9, where Bats and Robin develop a fear of flashlights.
 * Superman #25, where Supes holds the American Flag.

Film

 * The cover of Scarface
 * Marilyn Monroe over the steam vent, from The Seven Year Itch. The male variant is such a common parody that it could probably classify as a trope on its own.
 * Thanks. I'll never get that out of my head now.
 * The American Beauty "apparently naked woman covered in rose petals" shot. Homaged by both genders with a variety of substances- most recently Sophie Ellis-Bextor with what Americans call sprinkles for The Children's Society, a British charity. This one is an example of the sexy-versus-squicky kind.
 * The poster for Jaws.
 * Riding the Bomb, from Dr. Strangelove.

Music

 * The cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road is now its own trope.
 * Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band also has lots of pricey ripoffs (as it deals with several agreements from people unwilling to have their faces plastered over an LP filled with "stoner's music").
 * The cover of With The Beatles, with the band's half-shaded faces, also gets copied often.
 * Annie Lebovitz's photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken hours before his assassination.
 * For a brief period of time, the album cover for Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
 * The cover of Elvis Presley's ... has an iconic font, which has been replicated or made fun of in several album covers, including Tom Waits's Rain Dogs, The Clash's London Calling and quite a few others.
 * Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction Cross and Skulls cover. Two great tastes that go together, and emulated by countless tattoo artists.

Tabletop Games

 * The Cover (second picture from the top) for the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook.

Politics

 * The world-famous red and black print of Che Guevara.
 * John F. Kennedy in his convertible motorcade, seconds before his assassination.
 * (the one where he's looking down) also seems to be popular.
 * Barack Obama's red, white and blue "hope" image.
 * Rosie the Riveter's "We Can Do It!" poster.
 * Uncle Sam Wants You
 * Richard Nixon at the door of Marine One, throwing the "Peace" signs with both hands.

Events

 * Neil Armstrong's photo of Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
 * The flag raising at Iwo Jima.
 * The VJ Day Kiss, now its own trope.

Other

 * Those workers having lunch on a skyscraper (homaged by a CSI New York still, among others).
 * The Bigfoot walking by shot from the Patterson-Gimlin film. (Homaged in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Hellboy, Elf, Watchmen...)
 * Nessie, the Loch Ness creature. The most famous photo is the "Surgeon's photo" taken in 1934 (the one that looks just like a guy sticking his hand up out of the water).