An outline of Greek gods partying atop Mount Olympus on the Olympics opening ceremony spurred conflicting public reactions as primarily conservative critics erroneously claimed that the efficiency parodied Leonard da Vinci’s well-known fresco “The Final Supper” (1495–98) and, by extension, mocked Christian beliefs.
The scene, the Olympics ceremony’s creative workforce made clear, was not impressed by Leonardo’s rendering of Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles, however reasonably the separate, and maybe equally iconic, artwork historic theme of godly festivities.
Within the creative reenactment throughout the Paris inauguration on Friday, July 26, a solid of drag artists, dancers, and different performers wearing elaborate costumes referencing Greek mythology gathered round a protracted platform on the Debilly Footbridge. A large dinner platter was lifted to disclose a blue-skinned, scantily clad Bacchus, portrayed by French actor and singer Philippe Katerine.
“Before everything … [Bacchus] is the god of celebration in Greek mythology and the tableau known as ‘Festivity,’” Olympics ceremony Creative Director Thomas Jolly mentioned. “He’s additionally the god of wine, which can be one of many jewels of France, and the daddy of Séquana, the goddess of the river Seine … The thought was to depict an enormous pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics.”
Bacchus and scenes of godly extra seem extensively all through Western artwork historical past, particularly throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In an X thread that has garnered upwards of 1.1 million views because it was posted yesterday, one historian cited Dutch artist Jan Harmensz van Biljert’s portray “The Feast of Gods” (c. 1635–40), held on the Musée Magnin in Dijon, France. The portray depicts an assemblage of gods at a celebratory banquet on Mount Olympus commemorating the wedding of Argonaut warrior Peleus and sea nymph Thetis. Within the foreground, Bacchus is proven mendacity on the bottom, dangling a throng of grapes over his mouth whereas a satyr dances on the desk.
This feast is notable in that it helps set the stage for the Trojan Warfare when one uninvited visitor Eris throws a golden apple, sending Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite right into a vanity-fueled competitors.
“The ‘Feast of the Gods’ is a standard theme within the work of this era, and related representations can likely be present in works by different painters,” a consultant for the Musée Magnin informed Hyperallergic in an e-mail. The museum has used the highlight as a chance to herald audiences, sharing the reference to the paintings on X.
Among the many numerous related renderings throughout the centuries is Dutch Mannerist painter Joachim Wtewael’s “A Banquet of the Gods,” through which a drunken Bacchus is proven within the backside hoisting a purple jug to his mouth whereas surrounded by cavorting gods. Different works, akin to Diego Velázquez’s “The Triumph of Bacchus” (1628–29), Giovanni Bellini and Titian’s “The Feast of the Gods” (1514/29), and Jan Brueghel the Youthful’s “The Feast of Bacchus” (1640) depict the Roman god equally, carrying lush laurel wreaths with a glass of wine in hand.
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Coincidentally, the opening ceremony efficiency is just not the one incident involving Bacchus to make world headlines in latest weeks. In Italy, Florence officers are nonetheless on the hunt for one presumed vacationer caught getting up shut and private with a statue of the Roman god.
