I had not anticipated writing about the Paris Olympics this soon and I never thought it would be about a ‘controversy’ in the opening ceremonies.
First the opening ceremonies did not take place in the main Olympic stadium as is the norm. Paris, the grand city itself, was the stadium and the Seine was the ‘track’ where the teams marched, rather boated, into the Olympic limelight. In addition, they had a parallel story line that embraced the grand city’s intimate relation with the arts. The ceremony alternated between introducing a boat or two of National teams floating down the Seine and the path of the Olympic torch through the city like we’ve never seen. It was like an avant-garde film by a grand French auteur that left, almost everything, to interpretation of the viewers. Some parts were spectacular others left many scratching their heads. It was most definitely conceived and choreographed more for a TV audience than for live spectators.
There was a diorama, if you will, on one of the bridges. I literally asked myself, “What the heck is that?” as I was watching the ceremonies with phone in hand and thus… not entirely paying attention. I assumed it was just a colorful background of people ornately and colorfully garbed sitting around a table eating.
Little did I know.
The next morning, I woke to incensed posts on Facebook regarding the very scene I had basically sluffed off. The folks were outraged that the scene was a derogatory parody of the Last Supper with Jesus and the Apostles portrayed by drag queens. People generally posted that they were outraged and thought it was very disrespectful of Christianity. My thought then was, “Dang, how did I miss that. I really should have paid more attention last night.” My next thought was “why would the purposely do such a thing at an Olympic Ceremony.” French arrogance? The waning of Christianity in Europe? No one really provided a good theory. People were just offended and insulted. Many vowed not to watch anymore of the Olympics in protest. A priest I know even posted a graphic referring to it as the “Satan Olympics.” He has since taken it down.
It seemed like they were making a good case.
Then later in the morning, the academics, far more familiar with fine art, started weighing in. One of my North Park colleagues, Lisa Ann Acosta, posted this: “Look. It's not the last supper IT'S NOT JESUS CHRIST WITH THE APOSTLES. Is it friggin DIONYSIUS or BACO. Quite a lot of Greek and Roman representation that the medievals were stolen to represent Jesus Christ. Calm down!!!!” Well, this really got my attention and I was even more engaged. She posted this from Rafael Martinez a bit later:
It's about the "Festin des Dieux" by Jan Harmensz van Bijlert.
Painted around 1635 and preserved in the Magnin de Avignon museum, in this painting the gods of Olympus celebrate the weddings of Tetis and Peleo.
At the center of the table is not Christ, but crowned APOLLO.
Bacus Dionysius is lying in the foreground.
A bit of classic culture never hurt anyone.
Well OK then, maybe it wasn’t as bad a people were first
thinking. Then, I started thinking. Most people are simply not aware of what Lisa
Ann and Rafael knew. I certainly had no
clue. I had seen Bacchanal paintings,
but I never gave them much thought beyond appreciating the paintings. I had never heard of Jan Harmensz van Bijlert
and cannot recall if “Feast of the Gods” was one of the Bacchanl paintings I
had ever seen. I never noted any
familiarity of the Bacchanal paintings and the Last Supper.
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| Da Vinci's Last Supper |
The more I thought about it, I focused on two thoughts/questions:
Were the folks who conceived, scripted, and brought this part of the program to life caught completely off guard by backlash of people associating this scene with the last supper instead of the “The Feast of the Gods?”
Did they doing it knowingly to take a swipe at Christianity and/or to create more buzz for their work?
Why this Jan Harmensz van Bijlert painting? It might be well known in art circles, but it is certainly obscure to the viewing public. Why not use Rodin, Mattise, Monet, or Renoir… French artists known round the world?
My reaction depends on the answers to the above questions. An explanation by the commentators certainly would have helped.
While it was a thing on Facebook for two days, Saturday and Sunday. By today, Tuesday, it was almost not a story. Such is life on social media. Furor erupts easily and dissipates almost as quickly.
There were articles in the Monday New York Times and the Wall Street Journal (bottom of page A14 mind you) on the subject. In the Times article both perspectives were covered. One art expert were played down the Last Supper connection. Louise Marshall, an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Sydney and an expert in Renaissance art pointed out that there at least 17 drag queens far more than Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. She went on to say that “Frankly, when I looked at the clips, ‘The Last Supper’ isn’t necessarily what springs to mind. It seems very lighthearted and funny and witty and very inclusive.” I tend to agree with Sasha Grishin, an art historian and professor emeritus at the Australian National University. She noted that “The idea of the central figure with a halo and a group of followers on either side — it’s so typical of ‘The Last Supper’ iconography that to read it in any other way might be a little foolhardy.”
The WSJ article focused on the French apology. A Paris 2024 spokesman made this statement, “There was never an intention to show disrespect to a religious group. If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really sorry.” As apologies go, this sound more perfunctory than a sincere apology. I believe more what the head of the Paris Olympics said.
Paris 2024 CEO Tony Estanguet also defended the ceremony as a proudly over-the-top display of Frenchness.
“The idea was to really trigger a reflection,” he said. “Naturally we had to take into account the international community. Having said that, it is a French ceremony for the French games, so we trusted our artistic director…We have freedom of expression in France and we wanted to protect it.”
So where do I stand. Tony Estanguet summed it up perfectly with zero hint of an apology in his statement. It was an over-the-top display of Frenchness which laid a trap to sucker those who are not erudite French intellectuals. It worked pretty well. I can see the architects of this clever deception sitting back sipping a French wine no one outside of France has ever heard of, smoking Gauloises, and giving each other the erudite French intellectuals’ equivalent of high-fives… whatever that may be.
Should we boycott the games? No. The athletes had nothing to do with this. We could boycott French Fries or rename them as Freedom Fries like we did a few decades ago. But why… the whole thing is already old news.
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Another good perspective on this is from Della Cassia Topouzian (yes the brighter, more literate, and better looking spouse of Ara) from her online newsletter “The Inspired Immigrant:” Hate the Paris 2024 Olympics Ceremony? Don't Punish the Athletes.
