The museum that hosts Michelangelo’s David has invited parents and students from a Florida school to visit after complaints about a lesson that featured the statue forced the principal to resign.
The board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade (ages 11-12) art class.
Florence Mayor Dario Nardella tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honour her and said that confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous”.
The Florida school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.
Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the David, a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, reflecting the height of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.
Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.
Carrasquilla said in a phone interview to the Associated Press on Sunday that she is “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and she may accept.
“I am totally, like, wow,” Carasquilla said. “I’ve been to Florence before and have seen the David up close and in person, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”
Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the David resides, expressed astonishment at the controversy.
“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,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.
She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.
Tallahassee Classical School has roughly 400 students from kindergarten through the 12th grade and has had three principals in three years.
Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla leaving her post, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate, while defending the decision.
“Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.
Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s exit at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said she isn’t sure she would take the job back even if it were offered.
“There’s been such controversy and such upheaval,” she said. “I would really have to consider, ‘Is this truly what is best?’”.
