March 28, 2023 / By mobanmarket
FLORIDA — Florida artists and activists and internet users across the globe have been quick to criticize — through memes, jokes and artwork — a Florida school’s recent response to students viewing the statue of David after some parents called the iconic sculpture “pornographic.”
Following complaints by several parents that their children were shown an image of the 16-century artwork by Michelangelo, Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal of Tallahassee Classical School, was given the option of resigning or being fired. She chose to resign from the public charter school.
The Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, which houses the sculpture, invited the school’s parents and students to visit to see the Renaissance masterpiece in person.
“To think that David could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Cecilie Hollberg, the gallery’s director, told the Associated Press.
The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, also tweeted an invitation for Carrasquilla to visit so he can honor her.
“A Florida teacher was forced to quit for showing students photos of Michelangelo’s David. Mistaking art for pornography is just ridiculous,” Nardella tweeted, according to Google Translate.
Memes about the situation have been circulating on social media. Gov. Ron DeSantis is featured in several — from being photoshopped into the image to look as though he’s putting underwear on David to his face being photoshopped in place of the 14-foot-tall statue’s genitals.
Another meme shared a photoshopped image of the statue, replacing the body from the waist down with the plastic, lower half of a Ken doll.
Others on social media have shared screenshots from the Animal Crossing series as a reminder that the statue of David makes an appearance in the video game.
And a photo of a group of gleeful nuns taking a selfie in front of David is also making the rounds online.
Florida activists and artists also have plenty to say about the incident.
“Called it,” Rebekah Jones, data scientist and Florida’s COVID-19 whistleblower, tweeted about the principal being forced to leave the Tallahassee school “under Ron DeSantis’ new draconian anti-woke laws.”
She shared a tweet she made in February in which she asked, “I’m curious what DeSantis plans to do about all that classical Western art since descriptions of nudity get books banned.
In a comment on another tweet, Jones wrote, “I predicted this a month ago. Even used the statue of David as the example. I am the Fascist Whisperer.”
Chaz Stevens, a political stunt activist and self-proclaimed “noted marble penis expert,” told Patch, “It’s just a penis, and well, a rather pretty one at that. Not sure what the big deal is, about 50 (percent) of us have one.”
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He’s seen David in person, before, he added.
“Michelangelo looked at a 20-foot-tall piece of marble and said, ‘There’s a dude in there. All I have to do is find him,’” Stevens said. “And a chisel and a hammer later and lo and behold, you have the most goddamn amazing thing you’ve ever seen in your life. How are you that (expletive) ignorant that you don’t recognize it for the value of what it is?”
Carrie Matteoli, a former Florida artist who recently moved out of state, sketched her own version of the statue, replacing David’s genitals with an outline of the Sunshine State.
“You can’t (expletive) with David! I know it was primarily about the principal not giving notice, but like anything else it’s the distance between things that emphasize the parody — the whiplash of a religious commissioned piece and its devotees vehement disapproval centuries later,” she told Patch.
Chad Mize, the St. Petersburg multimedia artist, designer and muralist who creates under the name Chizzy, shared his own sketch of David.
In his piece, Mize replaced the statue’s genitals with an assault rifle. Next to a check mark, he wrote, “Floriduh School Board Approved.”
The iconic statue of a nude male “was a little bit scandalous” when it first came out, Brandy Stark, a St. Petersburg artist and professor who teaches about the sculpture each semester, told Patch. “At one point they did create a little copper skirt for him for modesty’s sake. The same thing happened with Michelangelo’s painting of the last judgment in the Sistine chapel in which they actually had a group of artists come along after him and add coverings over some of the exposed male genitalia.”
She added, “But we’re talking the late Middle Ages. This is a point in which humanism is coming back into vogue and people are looking at independent ideas and thoughts, creating works that are so phenomenal that they are just mind-blowing.”
Stark said she’s surprised to see such controversy surrounding the sculpture, “one of the most highly recognized artworks in the world,” today.
“This isn’t really about sexuality as much as it is about the art. And I am absolutely floored that the principal was so under attack that she felt the need to resign. It shows how turbulent politics and education have become in this state,” she said. “And it’s a shame because on the college level I am getting students who have little to no connection to historic art, its meaning, or the evolution of human thinking. We are losing our connectivity to the past, to mutual understanding, and to the value of the arts.”
This story includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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