image source, Accademia Gallery
Hope Carrasquilla (right) arrived in town on Friday and went almost straight to the museum
A school principal in the United States has been forced to resign after parents complained about an art class in which one of the world’s most famous sculptures had visited the masterpiece.
Hope Carrasquilla and her family went to see Michelangelo’s David on Friday at the Accademia Galleria in Florence.
They came at the invitation of museum director Cecilie Holberg, who said she was grateful for the visit.
Mrs. Carrasquilla said she was impressed by the exhibit, saying, “I think it’s beautiful. It’s like a church.”
“What impresses me most is that this entire exhibition was built for,” she said in a statement provided to BBC News on Friday.
“There is nothing wrong with the human body per se,” she continued.
“Michelangelo would have been wrong to sculpt it any other way. I think it’s pretty cool.”
The breeder was asked to resign from the Tallahassee Classics School in Florida last month after less than a year on the job.
Local media reported that Ms. Carrasquilla did not know why she had asked to leave, but believed it was related to complaints about the lesson.
The 5.17-metre (17 ft) tall statue depicts a fully nude David, the biblical figure who killed the giant Goliath.
The art lesson, offered to 11- and 12-year-old students, included a portrait of David and they made references to Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus – both also containing nudity.
One parent complained that the Renaissance material was pornographic and others said they wanted to know the lesson before teaching it.
The incident caused an international outcry and confusion in the classical art community.
image source, Accademia Gallery
Director Cecilie Holberg (left) extended an invitation to visit the artwork
The Florida Department of Education was moved to issue a statement, declaring that the David statue had “artistic and historical value.”
Mrs. Holberg, the museum’s director, said she was “delighted to personally introduce the teacher” to the sculpture.
“It is a masterpiece that represents a religious symbol of purity and innocence, the triumph of good over evil.”
She added that more than half of the museum’s visitors come from the United States.
Michelangelo completed the statue of David between 1501 and 1504. It was immediately hailed as a masterpiece, with Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari saying that the statue of David “surpassed” any that had existed before.