Unless you have been doing the wise thing, and totally avoiding the news, you have seen or heard this news story: Principal resigns after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue
Apparently in one of the classes at this Christian school, students were shown a picture of the statue of David by Michelangelo. The lesson on Renaissance art, given to 11 and 12-year-olds, also included references to Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus“. Of course, all three pieces of art display the unclothed or partially unclothed human body. They are also some of the most renowned pieces of art of Western civilization.
The article states that the principal was given the option of resigning in place of being fired. The reason given was that she had not sent a notice home to the parents to give them the opportunity to opt their children out of such a display. One of the parents complained that it was pornographic, and they were upset that their child had seen it. Sigh…
When Señora and I went to Italy for our honeymoon we spent a little over two weeks there and visited several cities. While Florence is more than worthwhile to visit for many other reasons, there are several art museums there including The Uffiz, of course a cathedral, and fantastic food. We specifically put Florence on our agenda to see the statue of David which is at the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. All I can say was that it was absolutely awe inspiring, almost to the point of taking your breath away. How human hands could make an art piece out of rock that beautiful is beyond my comprehension. It just stops you in your tracks when you first walk in the museum.
How anyone could call this supreme achievement of human creation pornographic is pornography itself, in my world view.
Of course, you see David’s penis. All men have them last time I checked. Yup still there. I wrote about this much earlier in another blog posting, Michelangelo’s David, inspired by the comment of a Jamaican co-worker.
All over Florence, and Venice too, they are selling souvenirs of the statue David. Many of these focus on David’s male specific anatomy. We have a refrigerator magnet of this anatomy with the word Firenze (Italian for Florence) above the anatomical feature. You can buy aprons, boxer shorts, t-shirts and many other things featuring either a full picture of the statue, but frequently just his penis.
I was in one of these souvenir shops and looking around. I had stopped in front of a rack of t-shirts featuring Leonardo da Vinci‘s famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man. The Wikipedia article on this drawing states:
“The drawing represents Leonardo’s conception of ideal body proportions… Described by the art historian Carmen C. Bambach as ‘justly ranked among the all-time iconic images of Western civilization’, the work is a unique synthesis of artistic and scientific ideals and often considered an archetypal representation of the High Renaissance.“
The vendor came up, speaking to me in perfect English, wanting to know if I had grandchildren. When I responded in the affirmative, he suggested that I needed to buy each of them this t-shirt.
“Oh no,” I responded, “if they accidentally wore it to school, they would be sent home or suspended from school.”
He replied, “You Americans,” and walked away.
Yup, you Americans.
And so it should not go.
While the works of Michelangelo are considered great works of Western Civilization, it appears that civilization has regressed greatly in Florida.
That parent needs to take a chill pill. This is art. It is not porn.
And then there was the former Attorney General, John Ashcroft, putting drapes in front of bare breasted statues in the Justice Department.