Massa, scandal and controversy over Giuseppe Veneziano's gay Christ

It has aroused scandal and controversy in Massa, the “Gay Christ” by Giuseppe Veneziano (Mazzarino, 1971) exhibited at Palazzo Ducale for the solo exhibition Story Telling, open until next Feb. 24. Veneziano, among the best-known protagonists of the contemporary Italian scene, proposed to the Apuan public a Christ wearing a pair of leopard-print briefs bearing the “Dolce & Gabbana” label, and with the initials “LGBT” instead of the usual “INRI” on the inscription in the vertical arm of the cross.

This was enough for a few scattered handfuls of people offended by the revisiting of the sacred icon to ask Massa’s Leghist mayor, Francesco Persiani, to suspend the display (and someone even went so far as to call, online, for the... excommunication of Giuseppe Veneziano). However, the mayor made it known that there will be no closure. The artist, for his part, through his Facebook profile downplayed the controversy: “I know,” he said, “someone will think: you’re asking for it. If I get an idea to make a painting that deals with a social issue that I strongly believe in, what do I do, I don’t make the work because some political or religious community may be offended? If someone is offended I can only feel sorry, but I don’t give up making it.”

Massa, scandal and controversy over Giuseppe Veneziano's gay Christ

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