Cecilie Hollberg,director of the Galleria dell’Accademia,where the statue resides,expressed astonishment at the controversy.
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“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 is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free,it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.
About 400 students from kindergarten through to 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution,which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College,a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida GovernorRon DeSantis on educational issues.
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Barney Bishop,chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board,has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster,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 withSlate online magazine.
Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s ouster at Monday night’s school board meeting,but Carrasquilla said she wasn’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?’”
Marla Stone,head of humanities studies at the American Academy in Rome,said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating US culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.
“What we have here is a moral crusade against the body,sexuality,and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear,fear of beauty,of difference,and of the possibilities embedded in art.”
Michelangelo sculpted David between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia,and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.