The museum in Florence that houses the Davidthe Renaissance masterpiece of Miguel Angel, invited parents and students from a Florida private school to visit on Sunday after complaints about a lesson featuring the statue they will force the director to resign.
The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, also tweeted an invitation to the director to travel so that he could honor her personally. Confusing art with pornography is “ridiculous,” Nardella said.
The Tallahassee Classical School board pressured principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after a picture of David was shown in a sixth-grade art class.
The school has a policy that requires parents to be notified in advance the “controversial” issues that are taught
The incredulous Italian response highlighted how they are often perceived America’s culture wars in Europe, where, despite the rise of right-wing stances and governments, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even the nude ones, are generally free from controversy.
The Sunday front page of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera featured a cartoon by its leading satirist depicting David with his genitals covered by a picture of Uncle Sam and the word “Shame.”
Carrasquilla believes the school board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson that included a photo of David, a 5 meter high marble sculpture dating from 1504. Reflecting the height of the Italian Renaissance, the work depicts the biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.
Carrasquilla has stated that two parents complained because they were not notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.
Carrasquilla said in a telephone interview on Sunday that she feels “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and that she may accept.
“I’m totally excited,” Carasquilla said. “I’ve already been to Florence and seen the David up close and personal, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”
Ignorance
Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the David is, expressed her astonishment at the controversy.
“To think that David can be pornographic means not understanding the content of the Biblenot understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.
He invited the principal, school board, parents and students to see the “purity” of the statue.
Tallahassee Classical is a private charter school. Although taxpayer-funded and free, it is operated almost completely independently of the local school district and is chosen by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.
About 400 students, from preschool to 12th grade, attend this three-year-old institution, which It has already had three directors. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Michigan Christian school frequently consulted by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on educational issues.
Barney Bishop, president of the Tallahassee Classical school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a role in Carrasquilla’s removal, was not the only factor. He did not want to give more details, but he defended the decision.
“Parents have a right to know at any time their child is being taught a controversial subject and image,” Bishop said in an interview with the online magazine Slate.
Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s departure at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said he doesn’t know if he will take the job again even if it were offered to him.
“There has been so much controversy and so much turmoil,” he said. “I would really have to ask myself: ‘Is this for the best?'”
Marla Stone, head of humanities studies at the American Academy of Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in the escalation of the culture wars in america and questioned that the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant an advance warning.
“What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality and gender expression and a ignorance of historyStone said in an email. “The incident has to do with fear, fear of beauty, of difference and of the possibilities that art contains.”
Miguel Ángel Buonarroti sculpted the David between 1501 and 1504 by commission from Florence cathedral. The statue It is the jewel of the Accademia and attracts 1.7 million visitors to the museum each year.
“It’s chosen by a huge number of Americans who want to take a selfie and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” said director Hollberg.
The museum, like many others in Europe, It is free for student groups. There is no indication that the city or the museum will subsidize any trips.
Nicole Winfield y Terry Spencer
Associated Press
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
ap