The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris. Photo / Getty Images
The tableau included a woman in the role of Jesus and drag queens and gay icons as disciples. It was crashed by a man in blue as Dionysus, the Greek god of revelry.
Organisers of the Paris Olympics apologised on Sunday for a performance during Friday’s Opening Ceremonies that featured an apparent re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper amid mixed messages about the piece’s intent.
I'm not religious, but the French depiction of the Last Supper is blatant disrespect and incitement. Jesus is portrayed as a woman and the disciples as transvestites. I wonder why they didn't mock Islam in a similar way. Actually, don’t answer as I know why. pic.twitter.com/bynFQnTH5S
— Niall Boylan (@Niall_Boylan) July 26, 2024
The tableau included a woman with a halo-like crown in the role of Jesus as well as drag queens and gay icons as disciples; it was crashed by a scantily-clad blue man wearing a headdress of fruit - Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine and revelry.
Church leaders and some conservative politicians condemned the performance as a perversion of the scene, recounted in the Bible, on the eve of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday called the performance a “mockery [that] was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world.” A US telecommunications firm, C Spire, said it was pulling its advertising from the Summer Games. The French Conference of Catholic Bishops also objected.
In the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, Jesus shares bread and wine with his disciples and instructs them to eat and drink in his memory - the basis for the Eucharist, or Communion, the central ritual in Christian worship.
Some are angry about the "anti-Christian depiction of the last supper" at the Olympic Opening ceremony. (@elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump among others)
— AukeHoekstra (@AukeHoekstra) July 28, 2024
A Dutch art historian explains it's not the last supper but a Dutch painting of the Olympic gods.
And I explain what I loved.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/ZMftlt7dTO
Organisers apologised during the Games’ daily news conference on Sunday.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters. “If people have taken any offence we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Read More: Olympics 2024: Backlash after Olympics ceremony drag queens parody The Last Supper
On Friday, shortly after the performance, the Olympics posted photos of the blue man on X. “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” the post reads.
It doesn’t mention the Last Supper, and some on social media insisted that the performance depicted a Dionysian feast.
“The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus,” Opening Ceremonies choreographer Thomas Jolly told the Paris-based BFM network on Sunday, according to France 24. “You’ll never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone.”
But organisers reportedly acknowledged Sunday that Jolly “took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting.”
“[Jolly] is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art,” Paris 2024 said in a statement to The Wrap. “From Andy Warhol to The Simpsons, many have done it before him.”