Anything Wrong with Depicting the Apostles at the Last Supper as Women?
Or As a Drunken Binge? French, Italian and Greek Officials Are Not Amused (And Neither is the Church)

Philip Stone February 10, 2005

Can You Spot The Difference?

If Leonardo da Vinci had intended for his 15th century “Last Supper” fresco masterpiece to display glamorous models in chic clothing then he would have painted it that way. Right? So when a French fashion house designed an advertising poster based on the fresco, but with the guys (apostles) substituted by well-dressed modern gals, except for one hunk bare from the waste who looks like he is doing something he shouldn’t be doing with one or two of the girls, well that was just asking for trouble.
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And trouble is what the Marithe and Francois Girbaud Fashion house got. When city fathers in Milan learned in February the French couturiers were planning to display its poster parody in the very city where Leonardo’s masterpiece resides (in a convent no less) they knew that a certain gentleman in failing health living down the road in the Vatican would not be amused and something had to be done.

So Marithe and Francois can add “Banned in Milan” to their credentials. Not to be put off, however, they came up with the bright idea that in their very own enlightened liberal France they would have no such problem. And up went the posters in Paris.

And charging into court came the Beliefs and Freedoms association, formed by the French Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in 1996, claiming the poster was offensive to Roman Catholics, and a judge agreed. He told Marithe and Francois to get all the posters down within three days or face a daily fine of €100,000 for as long as the posters are displayed.

What seems to be the major problem is the sole guy in the poster and what he may be doing. He is a real hunk -- as the ladies might say – and he is not wearing anything above the waste as he sits rather suggestively facing one of the models on her lap.

“One of the women apostles is kissing the naked torso of a man, which just makes the imitation (of the fresco) more offensive,” said IAP, an Italian advertising watchdog, which advised the Milan city fathers on what they should do. 

Milan city officials, not wanting to be called censors, said they refused to allow the poster based on opinions from the IAP. The Italian advertising watchdog warned gravely,  “This kind of image cannot be parodied for commercial ends without offending the sensitivity of at least part of the population.”

And the Paris court seemed to agree. It ruled the sole purpose of the poster was to make money “in disdain for the faith of people belonging to the Catholic religion.”  A lawyer had warned the court that if it allowed this poster then, “Tomorrow, it will be Christ on the cross selling socks!”

The fashion house, of course, doesn’t see it that way. In Milan it had argued that the poster was intended as a tribute to women. In the Paris court its lawyer followed that same theme saying,  “There is nothing in it that is offensive to the Catholic religion. It is a way of showing the place of women in society today, which is a reflection of our changing values.” He said that being forced to take down the posters amounted to censorship.

Since the Milan city fathers, the Beliefs and Freedoms Association, and the Paris court didn’t like the poster, one can only imagine what they might think if their bedtime reading took them to the illustrated book, The Life of Jesus, by Austrian author Gerhard Haderer. It depicts the Last Supper as a drunken binge.

We already know what a Greek court thinks of it. The author can add “Banned in Greece” to his credentials.

Not only that, but if he steps foot in Greece he can be thrown in jail for six months. It marked the first time in 20 years that Greece has banned a book.

The court did not find the humor in portraying Jesus as a pot-smoking hippy crossing the Sea of Galilee naked on a surfboard, Or for that matter Jesus having conversations with the likes of the late music great Jimi Hendrix or with fashion-guru Karl Lagerfeld. “Defamatory” and “ridicule” seemed to sum up most of what the court was saying

The book has sold some 100,000 German language copies and while it caused some uproar in various countries it had not been banned anywhere. But in Greece the Orthodox Church got into the act, and the church is still not without influence.

Haderer’s lawyer says if he can’t get the ban removed he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.  Haderer, who admits his book may be a little over the top, says the real issue is whether it is right for a state to set limits for humor.

Interestingly the court ruled that while writing such material is blasphemous, publishing and selling it is not. It acquitted the book’s Greek publisher and four booksellers.

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Another “Last Supper” Parody Falls Foul, This Time In Ireland – October 6, 2005

An Irish bookmaker utilizing a billboard parody of Jesus and the Apostles playing cards and roulette, armed with stacks of gambling chips, at the Last Supper, has fallen foul of the advertising watchdog.

The Irish Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered the billboard posters emblazoned with the words, “There’s a place for fun and games” taken down after it received more than 100 complaints, a very high number of objections for Ireland. The bookmaker, Paddy Power, received another 100 complaints directly – none of that surprising in such a Roman Catholic dominated country.

The posters were found to have violated Ireland’s strict guidelines that advertising should not cause widespread offence. ASA solemnly declared, “This has caused widespread offence” prompting the bookmaker to put up new posters in Dublin saying, “There’s a place for fun and games. Apparently this isn’t it.”