The director of the Italian museum that houses Michelangelo’s “David” work this Monday denounced what she called the “distorted mind” of those who managed to fire a teacher who displayed images of the sculpture, famous for its beauty and nudity.
“There is a big difference between nudity and pornography,” Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, told AFP. “It really takes a distorted mind to confuse the two concepts,” he added when commenting on the firing of a teacher in the United States for showing the work to her young students.
The case echoed in Italy after the American press reported the resignation of Hope Carrasquilla, principal and teacher of a school in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital. The teacher had to resign because she showed her students between 11 and 12 years old images of the famous sculpture, dedicated to the biblical hero, executed by Miguel Ângelo Buonarroti between 1501 and 1504.
“Anyone who cares (about David’s nakedness) has a serious problem with the roots of Western culture,” commented Cecilie Hollberg when she referred to the image, one of the most famous in art history and one of the most representative of the Renaissance .
“Nudity is precisely the symbol of purity,” explained the director of the prestigious museum, complaining of what she called “inappropriate puritanism.” For her, it is also a “quite serious” matter, because it shows that “we are losing touch with our culture and with history”. “And to think that in the past at the Olympic Games in Greece all athletes competed naked,” he said with a broad smile.
Between history and law
David, symbol of the Italian Renaissance, was sculpted by Michelangelo from a single block of Carrara marble and represents the biblical hero as he prepares to face the giant Goliath with a slingshot.
The work is considered the ideal of masculine beauty and can be seen in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, although a copy, also in white marble, can be admired in Florence’s Signoria Square, in the center of the city.
“Confusing art with pornography is ridiculous,” Florence Mayor Dario Nardella said on Twitter. Nardella announced that he will invite Professor Hope Carrasquilla to the Médicis city in recognition of her work, because “those who teach art deserve respect,” he wrote on Facebook.
The school’s parent representative in Florida, Barney Bishop, told CNN he had not been asked to ban the images, as they are shown annually in art classes. The problem for Bishop is that parents were not aware of the themes and images that their children would see. As a result, the school received a complaint from a parent who considered the image to be pornographic.
A year ago, Florida enacted the Parents’ Rights in Education Act, which strengthens parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions about the education and well-being of their children. The policy was promoted by Governor Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s opponent as the Republican Party nominee in the 2024 presidential election and known for his conservative views.
The DeSantis administration also wants to expand the law to all levels of education, to avoid addressing topics such as sexual orientation, gender identity, sexuality and racism.
Source: DN
