There's another layer here -- the power of the camera to shape perspective. A broader view of the same scene --barnhart wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:58 am Back to the French opening ceremonies for the Olympics, I see several layers of meaning.
1. The most surface level is the Olympic games are pagan, not Christian. It should be no great surprise when pagan values surface.
2. I suspect the cover story provided by the committee is partially true. It likely was initially a recreation of a mythical pagan feast but someone thought it would be clever to include elements from the last supper painting and get a two for the price of one reaction. For which they were rewarded. Cultural conservatives cooperatively provided the reaction required to draw attention to an otherwise forgettable event.
3. On a slightly deeper level, one could ask if this particular portrayal of the feast of Dionysus is more of a copy of the Last Supper painting than the Last Supper painting was a copy of earlier paintings of the feast of Dionysus. Michaelangelo's composition made little effort to hew toward the historical scene, rather incorporating imagery from his contemporary society (European faces and architecture) and from earlier paintings of pagan myth (seating on one side of the table for feast of excess and display). Possibly he was making a statement about his own society and it's values by putting it in a biblical concept. If so, this is similar to the current French re-creation which injects current values like pleasure, individualism and gender fluidity into the "biblical" scene and also back into the pagan context. I don't approve, but it is clever on some level because it forces a false dichotomy, accept current values or hypocritically reject them for "Christian" culture markers which have roots in pagan myth.
4. On the deepest level, they pay an unknowing compliment to Christianity by illustrating the root of Christianity is a king who was mocked and disrespected, did not retaliate and asked his followers to do the same. They confirm our identity as sheep. The wolves are those who fight back at insult.
The "table" in front of the tableau wasn't a table, it was a runway with a fashion show on it. There are people sitting and standing on both sides of the runway. However, the picture that caused outrage and comparisons to the "Last Supper" was from one angle.
