Venus Europa versus Mars America
Italy: “The real pornography is ignorance!”
Vita gazette – One of the iconic works of the Renaissance period, when art and the enlightenment were at their peak, the statue of David provoked tragicomic developments in an American school. The parent’s reaction to introducing the statue of David to students in the Renaissance title led to the dismissal of the school principal. The answers from Italy came from parents against the labelling of “pornography”: “The real pornography is ignorance!”
This analogy, expressed in the context of international politics by Robert Kagan, one of the fathers of the Neo-Con movement, who made the analogy that “Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus”, has proven its accuracy in the realm of art. While sixth graders were being taught about the Renaissance period at Tallahassee Classical School in Florida, the display of the statue of David caused reactions. Some parents have filed their complaints with the school administration. On this, the school’s board of trustees held the principal, Hope Carrasquilla, accountable. And he was told he would be fired if he didn’t resign. As a result, the manager resigned due to this tragicomic incident.
An award for the fired principal
The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, has proposed to award the American teacher Hope Carrasquilla. Nardella has announced that he would like to invite the fired principal to Florence to take her to admire the statue of David kept in the Accademia Gallery. He wrote on Facebook: “A Florida teacher was forced to quit for showing students photos of Michelangelo’s David. Mistaking art for pornography is just ridiculous. I will personally invite the teacher to Florence to give her recognition on behalf of the city. Art is civilisation, and whoever teaches it deserves respect”.
The replica of the Accademia Gallery
“It’s absurd; nudity does not correspond to pornography”, immediately reacted Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, a Florentine museum that houses Michelangelo’s David. “I am amazed by these parents. David is the symbol of the Renaissance, which puts man at the centre of attention in his perfection as God created him. David is a religious figure, the expression of our culture European, Renaissance has absolutely nothing pornographic about it”.
And he explains: “He is a naked young man because he was a shepherd boy. Nudity has nothing to do with pornography; the connection between these two things seems impossible. David is the work of art par excellence, so clean, sober, and clear in expression. To make an association with pornography, one must have a distorted imagination.” For Hollberg, “we need to understand what was done and said” in the school, “but if things were as they seem, there is nothing to discuss; they are confusing nudity with pornography”.
Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento in Florence, added from the pages of the Repubblica newspaper: “At this rate, we will put the “braghettoni” on Michelangelo’s David as was done with the nudes of the Last Judgment. The same fate could happen to Botticelli’s Venus, even putting a bra on Correggio’s Danae. The radical counter-reform that is degenerating in America also risks making converts in Europe, and soon, given the current climate, it could unleash itself in Italy”.
La Nazione, published in Florence, said in an interview with the art historian Paola Cammeo: “What nonsense. David is the symbol of freedom”. Commenting on the news on the sculpture controversy, Cammeo said: “Art teaches us not to hide. I think the main thing is that pornography is ignorance,” she said. Commenting on the event as a “culture war”, Corriere della Sera wrote, “In America, where conservative states shift curricula choices from teachers to families, the culture war ends education produces monsters.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, an essential artist of the Italian High Renaissance, created this magnificent sculpture which rose from a single block of marble between 1501 and 1504. One of the leading figures of Florence, Michelangelo, who was then only 26 years old, was commissioned to sculpt his statue in a series that will cover the roof of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. But once the 6-ton piece was completed, it was clear that it would be next to impossible to lift. Thus it was decided to place the statue of David in the Palazzo della Signoria, where it remained a symbol of strength and defiance until it was permanently transferred to the Galleria dell’Accademia in 1873. Considered one of the most important masterpieces in art history, the sculpture in marble is exhibited as a work that defines both the artist’s skill and the Renaissance.
It is even said that Freud had Stendhal syndrome in front of the statue of David. On the other hand, illustrious artist, writer and historian Giorgio Vasari, “No other work of art equals it in such right proportion, beauty and perfection,” he said.
The statue depicts David, a biblical figure. David fights Goliath, a mighty Philistine. Unarmed, David uses a slingshot to slay his foe and then decapitates him with his sword.
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