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Milan (pte016/04.02.2005/11:15) - A poster campaign depicting a group of well-dressed women in a Last Supper style pose has been banned in Milan for being "offensive to part of the population". As the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk reports, the poster, by French fashion house Marithe and Francois Girbaud, has been forbidden by the city authorities following a ruling by the city advertising watchdog last month.
The poster is a version of Leonardo Da Vinci's work with an almost all-female cast. It shows angelic looking women clad in the company's "casual chic" pose around a long table as Christ and his apostles. There is one man, John the Baptist, who is sitting on a woman's lap, with a bare torso and low-cut jeans. The poster has been on walls, billboards and magazines in New York and Paris for weeks. However, in Milan, where Leonardo's fresco is preserved, it has been banned by the city authorities.
"This Last Supper inevitably recalls the very foundations of the Christian faith," said the Istituto di Autodisciplina http://www.iap.it . "This kind of image, with a high concentration of theological symbols, cannot be recreated and parodied for commercial ends without offending the religious sensitivities of at least part of the population. One of the women apostles is kissing the naked torso of a man, which just makes the imitation more offensive. As does the use of Christian symbols like the dove, the chalice and the position of the fingers of the female Christ," it added.
According to the company, the image is not offensive but a tribute to women. The poster was inspired by Dan Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code", which suggests that the figure of John the Baptist in Da Vinci's masterpiece is actually Mary Magdalen in disguise.
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