Art or pornography, this is the question that is currently the subject of a debate in the USA. In the center is the world-famous David statue by Michelangelo. According to media reports, a Florida teacher lost her job after showing her class a picture of the naked statue.
The reports have now also caused a stir in Florence, where the monumental Renaissance-era statue stands in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Even the mayor of the central Italian city spoke up via Twitter. “Confusing art with pornography is just ridiculous,” Dario Nardella tweeted. He will invite the teacher to Florence “to pay tribute to her on behalf of the city. Art is civilization and those who teach it deserve respect.”
The director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, Cecilie Hollberg, was outraged and amazed at the alleged dismissal of the teacher. “It’s absurd. Nudity is not the same as pornography,” she quotes the Italian daily La Repubblica as saying. The David statue is the symbol of the Renaissance that puts man in all his immaculateness, as created by God, at the center. David is also a religious figure. “To make an association with pornography, you have to have a distorted imagination.”
The museum in Florence is one of the most visited museums in Italy, mainly because of the well-known David sculpture. The marble statue was created between 1501 and 1504. In the 16th century it first adorned the entrance of the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio – since 1873 it has been kept in the museum. Michelangelo’s sculpture depicts the biblical David about to launch a slingshot battle against the giant Goliath.
