Michelangelo’s David is being defended by Italian officials after the forced resignation of a teacher in Florida, USA, who is accused of “exposing students to pornography” during class. art history he showed them images of a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture.

However, the school board forced the director to resign after her parents complained about Nadezhda Karaskila for not notifying her parents in advance of “controversial” spectacle course and so on subjected sixth graders to “pornography”.

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The outrage that this episode caused in Italy, ruled by Georgia Meloni, testifies to the huge difference between conservatives in the US and Europe.

Among other things, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, called it “ridiculous” to confuse art with pornography, sending an invitation to the director who lost his job to honor her personally.

For her part, Cecilia Holberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, invited the director of the Tallahassee Classic, students and parents to the museum to admire the inimitable art of a huge 5.17 meter high marble sculpture that represents the Biblical Naked David who kills Goliath only with your weapon of faith.

“To think that David can be a pornographic spectacle really means that the person does not understand the content of the Bible, does not understand Western culture, and does not understand the art of the Renaissance.“, – said Holberg.

The director of the Museum of Florence herself said that the whole episode displays “extreme ignorance” in art history and is the result”erroneous puritanism“.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera ran a front page on Sunday with Uncle Sam covering David’s genitals exclaiming “Shame.”

“Here we are dealing with a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, gender expression, and a disregard for History. This incident is about fear, fear of the beauty, diversity and possibilities that art embodies.”, says Marla Stone, head of the humanities department at the American Academy in Rome.

For his part, however, Barney Bishop, chairman of the school’s board of directors, confirmed that the art class “was one of many questions,” but assured that “we’re not trying to ban images of the statue.”

According to him, the problem was that parents were not informed about the content of the lesson, as is customary and required.

Michelangelo painted the colossal David between 1501-1504, commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the main attraction of the Art Gallery of Florence, which annually attracts about 1.7 million visitors.

Source: AP/AFP/Axios.