The headmistress has received support from the Florence museum which houses the famous nude sculpture by the Florentine artist, denouncing the “twisted mind” of the “ignorant”. The mayor of Florence even invited the teacher to visit his city.
The controversy surprises more than one in Italy. Hope Carrasquilla, director of a contract school in Tallahassee, capital of Florida (USA), has been ordered to resign or be fired after showing her 11 and 12-year-old students a picture of David by Michelangelo, the famous nude sculpture by the Florentine artist. The initiative being qualified as “pornographic” by relatives. “It saddens me that my mission here had to end like this,” told Hope the teacher, forced to resign, on a daily basis Tallahassee Democrat.
From the “ignorant” to the “twisted mind”
Cecilie Hollberg, the director of the Florence museum which houses the work, lamented on Monday March 27 “twisted mind” of the “ignorant” having obtained the dismissal of the headmistress who had shown in class the nudity of the biblical hero. Emblem of the Italian Renaissance, the David sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti between 1501 and 1504 (in a single block of Carrara marble) represents the biblical hero as he prepares to confront the giant Goliath with his sling. This statue is often considered the ideal of male beauty.
“There is a big difference between nudity and pornography”, pointed out Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, in an interview with AFP. “You really have to have a twisted mind to confuse” both. “Those who are disturbed (by David’s nakedness) have a serious problem with the roots of Western culture”she decides, while “it is precisely nudity which is the symbol of its purity”. The German historian, who denounces “a misplaced puritanism”judge this case “pretty serious” because it reveals that “we lose the link with our culture and with history”.
“When you think that in the past at the Olympic Games in Greece all (athletes) were naked, she adds with a smile. On Twitter, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, for his part, estimated that “to confuse art with pornography is simply ridiculous”. He also, in the process, invited Hope Carrasquilla to come and visit his city.
Parental rights, Governor DeSantis’ hobbyhorse
The president of the Florida school’s parent council, Barney Bishop, assured American television CNN that it was not a question of banning the image, which is shown every year in progress. arts. But, according to him, the parents were not informed in advance as provided for in the procedure and even if almost all of them were satisfied with the course, the establishment received a complaint deeming the image pornographic.
While acknowledging the aesthetic beauty of the work, Barney Bishop also explained that the concept of parental rights, supreme in Florida, prevailed. Asked by Slate on whether this decision was due to controversy, he confirmed that “it was a problem, among many others”. Florida places great emphasis on parental rights in education, a policy led by Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run against Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2024 US presidential election.
