Since when does the minority rule? Three parents in Florida were able to rid their children’s school of its principal for allowing a 6th-grade art class to view Michelangelo’s “David.” One of the parents explained that the Renaissance sculpture was “porn.”
Say what?
This would be news to the Florentines of old who wanted “David” to top the Florence Cathedral. But to improve the view for passersby, they put it in the public square. Given the heroism of the Biblical figure, the statue became the city’s symbol of defense against rival states.
Granted, not everyone nowadays knows this 600-year-old history.
But certainly, parents of students at a school called Tallahassee Classical School with a website proclaiming an agenda of “classical education,” should see this class-style sculpture for more than its state of undress.
With such skittishness about figures au naturel in Classical art, these Florida parents will need to keep their children from travel to all the dens of inequity that display it, like, say, the Sistine Chapel or the sundry Catholic churches around the world where figures in paintings and sculptures can be seen without a fig leaf in sight.
Even if these parents don’t take their children abroad, there’s a pitfall right here in Florida. A statue of “David” stands in all its glory in the state museum.
The Ringling Museum in Sarasota boasts a 16-foot replica also in the altogether.
You can see the statue the moment you enter the courtyard. It's the tallest sculpture there. The image of the biblical figure who saved his people from Goliath is meant to replenish the spirit. If only the Tallahassee parents will take their eyes off David’s genitals long enough to see his furrowed brow and know his fear.
They’d also know how this boy warrior faced down his fear.
Hidden in plain sight
Like Florence, Sarasota adopted David as a city symbol – but with certain adjustments. While the statue appeared on all of the city’s letterheads, it was pictured from the rear. Eventually, city fathers, likely realizing the silliness of the rearview, turned “David” around, but still hid the anatomy by showing it in silhouette.
Not that Florida is the only government shy about nudity in classical art. There’s another replica of “David” in the U.S. that also is not seen frontally, this time in Sioux Falls. A Baptist pastor there called it "filth,'' worrying that the population would go naked in the streets. As a result, the statue was set to face front to the Sioux River, its back to the city streets.
But here’s the thing about viewing “David” from the rear (or in silhouette), you lose the story. You can’t see his state of mind as he readied to do battle. You miss his assumed pose of nonchalance as If waiting for a bus to hide his qualms about battling Goliath. You miss his pretense at calm as he furtively palmed a stone in one hand and the sling for it flung ever so casually over his shoulder.
If you don’t see all that, you won’t understand that Michelangelo purposely portrayed David in the nude to emphasize his vulnerability, rendering him all the more valiant. Too bad, the students at the Tallahassee Classical School won’t be taught that lesson.
