• Art The principal of a Florida school, forced to resign for showing photos of Michelangelo's David to students in class

The city of Florence (northern Italy) will present an award to the teacher of a US school who had to resign after some parents considered it "inappropriate" to show images of Michelangelo's David to her students of 11 and 12 years.

The mayor, David Nardella, will personally invite teacher Hope Carrasquilla, while Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Academy Gallery, where the sculpture is exhibited, extended an invitation to the parents of the students on Monday to explain the difference between "nudity" and "pornography."

"I am amazed with these fathers, David is the symbol of the Renaissance that puts man in the center of attention in his perfection as he was created by God. He is a religious figure, he is the expression of our European culture, the Renaissance has absolutely nothing pornographic," the director told local media.

For Hollberg associating this icon with pornography derives from a "distorted" vision since David "is the work of art par excellence, so clean, so sober and clear in its expression."

For his part, the mayor of Florence said on his social networks that "confusing art with pornography is simply ridiculous."

"I will personally invite the teacher to Florence to give her recognition on behalf of the city. Art is civilization and whoever teaches it deserves respect," Nardella announced Saturday on his Facebook profile.

Michelangelo's sculpture of David, one of the symbols of the Italian Renaissance and an example par excellence of the classical canon of beauty, is one of the best-known artistic works in the world.

Sculpted by Michelangelo, the statue depicts naked the biblical king, whose life is described in the books of Samuel, recognized as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

However, the American press announced last week the resignation of Hope Carrasquilla, a school principal from Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, who had to leave her post for having shown the work in class.

Carrasquilla, who has been teaching in public, private and "autonomous" schools for 20 years, explained that the reason was that the sixth-grade arts program included classic sculptures of nude characters such as David, something that parents and other directors did not like.

More parental control

The president of the school, Barney Bishop, confirmed to the channel that he gave an ultimatum to Carrasquilla and explained that he supports the creation of a law that gives parents more control over the education their children receive during primary education.

The parents complained because they do not like "'woke' (progressive) indoctrination," according to the president, although the local press specified that their complaint had to do with not being informed in advance of the type of images their children were going to see.

At the initiative of Governor Ron DeSantis, who was re-elected in 2022 for four more years and seems determined to be a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024, a set of laws have been approved in Florida that prohibit not only teaching but talking about certain topics in schools, such as gender identity, sexuality, systemic racism and others.

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  • Italy
  • art
  • United States