Beauty pageant slammed for using half-naked women to recreate Da Vinci’s Last Supper

The photo shows eight contestants posing as Jesus and his disciples at a table whilst wearing orange thong bikinis.

The publicity stunt was done to promote the Miss Bumbum pageant; an annual competition to find “Brazil’s best bottom”.

The woman at the centre of the photo poses as Jesus by holding up a wine glass. She received the highest number of votes in the competition so far.

The advertising campaign has caused controversy in the predominantly Catholic country. Fr Clesio Vieira, a priest from Rio de Janeiro, said the photo “has broken the boundaries of ethics and respect, all in the name of money”.

“This isn’t creativity,” Vieira told local media. “It’s the vulgarisation of the sacred and is deeply disrespectful.”

DaianaFeguerdo, the woman who played the role of Jesus, said she was unhappy with the photo.

“I did the photo because of my contract, but I didn’t like it and I wasn’t happy about it,” she said. “You can’t play around with the word of God. For me it is blasphemy.”

The pageant organisers have argued that the photo was never meant to cause offense.

Depictions of the Last Supper have been undertaken by artists for centuries, Leonardo da Vinci’s late 1490s mural painting is the most famous.