Last Supper ad

[gone]

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/red/blue_pics/2005/02/04/lastsupper3426236werwerere3.jpg

It is interesting that the above advert echoing the Last Supper for French fashion house Marithé and François Gribaud (http://www.girbaud.com) has now been banned not only by the Milanese advertising watchdog (http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1405751,00.html), but also by the French courts (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4337031.stm). In a time when advertising is often aesthetically pornographic and ethically bankrupt it is hard to credit that a relatively sophisticated image such as this is found so objectionable.

The ruling French judge claimed the advert was, "a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs." It is a shame the same consideration was not in place when Muslim school children across France were banned from wearing clothes bearing witness to their faith.

[Woodpecker]

Where's Voltaire when we need him?

That's a cool picture, a little bit silly maybe but nicely done.

The fact that it's been banned means that the company won't have to spend money on disseminating it, while it flies around the internet gaining exposure for the company for free.

[tesseract]

They knew what they were doing. smile.gif

It could be a little more 'busty' if you ask me, but the leg factor is awesome.

[gone]

That element hadn’t even occurred to me. I always find those skinny models rather asexual. The ad would be more powerful populated by Suicide Girl-types selling a grungier product.

“They knew what they were doing.” Maybe in getting attention, but I really find it quite disturbing that in 2005 an image like that is banned in a European court. They can’t have imagined (hoped) for that.

Must be the same type of people claiming the new Stations of the Cross in Christchurch Cathedral are pornographic:

http://shoei.orcon.net.nz/stations.html

They depict a naked Jesus and are quite beautiful.

[tesseract]

Into the ample SG girls as well, hence the plea for more chest. But I think the women (type) in the above ad are incredibly stunning. Their slender bodies are wonderfully artful, equisite.

They absolutely knew what they were doing. The fashion community LOVES to challenge the sensibilities of the 'religious'...I wonder if they aren't the same thing at times.

The link you provided there has me thinking: do we need to confront the penis as part of the Christ image?

[silentwolf]

Originally posted by tesseract:
The link you provided there has me thinking: do we need to confront the penis as part of the Christ image?As long as he's flaccid and out in front, we're safe.

[jezebelle]

Not being a shoe freak, I had no idea what they were advertising, had I not looked it up.
If you have to ask, you must not be able to buy.
Gee I guess I don't fit the profile, hee, hee.

[Buzz]

Let's not forget that Leonardo DaVinci invented the design and arrangement of that painting.

Now a Christian Icon.

I'm constantly amazed at how threatening art is. It generally gets more press than unjust wars.

[Thom]

Looks like a man in there at christ's right hand. Didn't the dan brown story suggest that it was magdalene in that position in the da vinci original? If so, thats a neat quote by the advertisers!

[gone]

Originally posted by tesseract:
The link you provided there has me thinking: do we need to confront the penis as part of the Christ image?More OT God than Christ, but I was taking notes from this the other day; quite interesting:

Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard. God’s Phallus: And Other Problems for Men and Monotheism (Beacon Press, 1994).

[Woodpecker]

A) The women in the picture are attractive, "skinny legs and all."

B) The picture brings me back to a perception I had when looking at some Helmut Newton pix a few years ago, which is that the really good models are real artists. Modeling is a bit like dancing, a bit like acting, using the face and body as its medium.

[gone]

I seem to be seeing Jesus’ penis everywhere. A passage from Nelson, James B and Sandra P. Longfellow, Sexuality and the Sacred (John Knox Press, 1994):

“Devout Christian painters from Flanders to Florence removed drapery from the figure of Jesus and purposely exposed his genitals. “In many cases hundreds of pious religious works, from before 1400 to past the mid-16th century, the ostensive unveiling of the Child’s sex, or the touching, protecting or presentation of it, is the main action… And the emphasis recurs in images of the dead Christ, or of the mystical Man of Sorrows… All of which has been tactfully overlooked for half a millennium” [quote: Leon Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (Pantheon Books, 1983), p. 1]. In the great cathedrals hung paintings of the Holy Family in which Mary herself deliberately spreads the infant’s thighs so that the pious might gaze at his genitals in wonder. In other paintings the Magi are depicted gazing intently at Jesus’ uncovered loins as if expecting revelation. In still others Jesus’ genitals are being touched and fondled by his mother, by St. Anne, and by himself. So also in the paintings of the passion and the crucifixion, the adult Jesus is depicted as thoroughly sexual. In some, his hand cups his genitals in death. In others the loincloth of the suffering Christ is protruding with an unmistakable erection.” (p.210)

Further on Nelson makes an interesting connection in distinguishing between the phallus and the penis; that the phallus represents a solar energy equated with the presentation of God by the Via Positiva (this is quite familiar), but that the penis represents dark, emptying energy and the Via Negativa (Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross, etc). The soft darkness of the penis is therefore a necessary balance to the hard light of the phallus.

Buzz, this penis/darkness/softness/emptiness connection reminded me of a dream you mentioned some time ago when your penis turned into a mushroom and dropped off.

[ March 20, 2005, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: gelfer ]

[nanouk]

hmmm...the other night i had a drink at a bar breaming over with hip, young things...about 70% of the clientel were women, and boy! were they predatorial!!!
i nearly got punched by a girl, when trying to get from the toilets to my friends again, and even when i excused myself her fists were ready.

i looked around, and saw the men, standing in little groups, huddled up, protecting each other while looking rather frightened...

i loved the picture above, the fashion industry are rather good at rebellion, and always have been in my opinion...
if one can't open people's minds, make 'em wear the badge!

Love and Respect,

[ March 20, 2005, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: nanouk ]