Apologises of Last “Suharto” Supper

Tempo news weekly Indonesia apologize to all of Christians, because put the picture of former president of Indonesia, Suharto and his children on Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, Last supper as a cover of their magazine. In this painting Suharto who died last month placed in the center which is Jesus Christ's place surrounded by his children. This picture was protested by the Christians because they think it is despise their religion. After the incident Tempo company put their apology “Tempo Magazine Apologizes” in the headline of Koran tempo newspaper, which is published by the same company. They said that they don’t want to hurt Christians, they just inspired by the Leonardo painting and not in the concept of holy bible.

This picture has controversial because there are two different perceptions about this picture. Every picture has its own meaning and its own perception. It depends on how people think about the picture. There are third element that set up by the image: the composition of the whole, the way in which the representational and interactive elements are made to related to each other, the way are integrated into meaningful whole (Krees& Leeuwen, 2006). Therefore, people will think differently. The different perception also caused by different experiences and different knowledge. Schema theory suggested that reader interact with text and construct their meaning by calling on their framework of prior knowledge and background experience of objects, situation, events, and action (Putnis & petelin 1996, p 230 ).

In this case, Christians think that last supper is holy painting, because based on their religion it was the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles and disciples prior before he die and it contains many significant principles, and continues to be an important part of Christian lives throughout the world (all about Jesus Christ.com , 2009). However, non- Christians think that it is famous beautiful panting that made by Leonardo Da Vinci. From the explanation above I conclude that people have different perception because they have different experiences and knowledge.

List of References

1. ABC News 2009, Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto, viewed 13th June 2009, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm>
2. All about Jesus Christ 2009,’The Last Supper- Dining with Christ’, viewed 10 June 2009, < http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/the-last-supper.htm>
3. Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 6: The meaning of composition.
4. Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication.