The Paris Olympics opening ceremony took a lot of people by surprise with a rendition by drag queens of what looked like Da Vinci’s “Last Supper.”
Was it a mocking of the “Last Supper?” Here’s what’s been said so far.
The Olympic ceremony presentation was apparently called "La Cène Sur Un Scène Sur La Seine," which, translated into English is, "The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine." This title was reported by multiple outlets in France at the time. Here’s an example, it’s in French, but the gist is a comparison to Da Vinci.
The woman at the center of the tableau is Barbara Butch. She initially posted this on her Instagram account:
Once the backlash started coming in, she deleted that post and replaced it with this one:
Butch's deleted posts and other related now-deleted posts were captured by @RealTStevenson on X.
Thomas Jolly, the man responsible for the Paris Olympics presentations like the Last Supper, has denied Da Vinci's work was his inspiration.
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Then came the gaslighting.
Official Olympics accounts and organizers did not make Last Supper references, instead pointing to Dionysus, the Greek God of wine-making.
“The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” the official X account of the Olympics posted on X. (image below)
This image (above), aligning with other Dionysus references, came at around 3 hours into the opening ceremonies; long after the initial tableau of the Last Supper which occurred just before the 2 hour mark.
The Paris Olympics came out apologizing, but not before The Wrap had confirmed the point of Jolly's display using drag queens was to paganize the Last Supper.
Others, including a statement from Paris 2024 producers obtained by TheWrap Sunday, said that it was in fact inspired by Da Vinci’s famous painting — a skewing of the religious imagery that has been slammed by the Christian right as a mockery of Jesus Christ.
“For the ‘Festivities’ segment, Thomas Jolly took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting,” producers said in the statement. “Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief … [Jolly] is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art. From Andy Warhol to ‘The Simpsons,’ many have done it before him.”
The Wrap said the same day the producers made their statement, Jolly went the other way, but by then the backlash was already happening.
“It’s not my inspiration and that should be pretty obvious. There’s Dionysus arriving on a table. Why is he there? First and foremost because he is the god of celebration in Greek mythology and the tableau is called ‘Festivity,’” Jolly said, translated to English. “He is also the god of wine, which is also one of the jewels of France, and the father of Séquana, the goddess of the river Seine. The idea was to depict a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics.”
Then came the apology, which didn't deny the ceremony included a scene paralleling the Last Supper.
At a press conference, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps said, "Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. It [the opening ceremonies] tried to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry."
Here's an honest headline from ESPN, note the date.
At the bottom of the article, it also says the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the article.