Michael Day in Milan

The Guardian

Controversial plans by British film-maker Peter Greenaway to project a light show on to Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is at risk of being cancelled by Italian authorities, who fear the masterpiece could suffer irreparable damage.
The 65-year-old avant-garde director is scheduled next month to project montages, including images of Christ's genitalia, on to the painting, accompanied by actors' voices, in an attempt to link "8,000 years of art and 112 years of cinema".

But Milan's mayor, Letizia Moratti, has said she wants to cancel the June 9 show to protect the notoriously fragile work, which was completed in 1498 in the city's Santa Maria delle Grazie church.
A report delivered to the mayor's office advised her to cancel the event, even though a scientific committee charged with preserving the painting has concluded it would not be damaged by the light show.

Painted on a refectory wall in the church, the work has captivated observers for five centuries, with the unprecedented realism in which it depicts the moment Christ reveals to his 12 apostles that one of them will betray him. It is generally considered one of the greatest paintings in the history of western art.

Undeterred, Greenaway planned a few improvements that would, with the aid of a light and sound show, turn the Last Supper into a moment in Christ's whole life story, from birth to crucifixion.

Initially, his proposals got the go-ahead but, soon after, the city's authorities changed their minds. Last month, though, it was decided that Greenaway could indeed produce the show, but only once, on June 9.

Observers say Greenaway's intention to spice up the show by projecting "raw and heavy" images of Christ's genitalia and naked crucifixion, taken from other Renaissance art, on to the church's walls was unlikely to endear the project to Milan's conservative mayor.

Greenaway's agent, Franco Laera, described the mayor's decision as "depressing". "Once again we find ourselves facing the impossibility of carrying forward a creative venture. It's dreadful."

The project received the backing of Leonardo expert Professor Martin Kemp, of Oxford University, who suggested the Renaissance master would have appreciated the attempts to innovate his work with new techniques. Other critics expressed concern about the project because of the painting's fragility.

Milan art critic Fabio Vassallo said: "Given that experts have said that light won't damage the painting, I can't quite see what the technical objections are about. On the other hand, the painting's rather good as it is. The show seems a bit superfluous and presumptuous."