These days academics in the humanities are vulnerable to assault on so many fronts for not being “woke” and attuned to the latest political sensibilities. We, and they, are getting used to it, alas.
However the latest story of this sort from the US is slightly different, and, seemingly, even more bizarre. I am sure many readers will have read about the Florida parents who objected to not being warned in advance that their children were going to be shown photographs of Michelangelo’s “David” as part of a course on The Renaissance. One parent described it as “pornographic”. As a result the school principal was sacked.
I am sure readers will join me in shaking their heads at such an approach to one of the high points of artistic creativity of the Italian Renaissance or indeed of any other era.
The Art Newspaper reported the story at Florida school principal fired for showing students Michelangelo's 'pornographic' David sculpture
The BBC News website has an account at Principal resigns after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue and an update at Italian art experts astonished by David statue uproar in Florida
The Los Angeles Times also reports on the offer of a school trip for the children to see the original statue from the Mayor of Florence at After Florida school uproar, Italy extends an invitation to view Michelangelo's 'David' as does the Evening Standard at Museum wants parents to see Michelangelo’s David after statue branded ‘pornographic’
At the risk of having my blog labelled as pornographic - I should be so lucky/unlucky - here is a reminder of the offending statue:
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