TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — An art history expert who teaches at Florida State University said Europeans are asking him what is going on in Florida after a controversial lesson at a Tallahassee school made global headlines.
Dr. Lorenzo Pericolo is an art historian with special interests in European Renaissance, according to the Department of Art History at FSU. ABC 27 reached out to him after a controversial lesson at Tallahassee Classical School involving Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. That lesson, featuring a picture of the sculpture, led to complaints from parents. Ultimately, the Florida charter school’s principal was forced to resign.
Dr. Pericolo explained why David is nude in the work of art. “He is a symbol of divine inspiration,” Dr. Pericolo said. “There is a tradition in western art that started with ancient Greece. The heroism of the individual is represented, codified and symbolized by the nude.”
However, that nudity was taken a different way in a recent sixth-grade art class at Tallahassee Classical School, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported two parents complained, because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown. They also reported a third complaint called the statue "pornographic."
That story has made headlines around the world in recent days. Monday, Dr. Pericolo told ABC 27, "I'm here now in Madrid for a couple of days for an exhibition. Many people are asking what is going on in Florida. I think this kind of event may hurt our reputation."
To bridge that cultural gap, Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell'Accademia, has invited the art class students, parents and educators from Tallahassee Classical to visit the museum in Florence and see the David statue in person. She said the invitation was meant to, “to show them what beauty means and to show them that this is pure beauty and nothing else.”
When asked what she thought of the controversy surrounding the lesson, Hollberg added, “this is shocking for me, because it's incredible to teach Renaissance in school without showing the David. It's like eating without having anything on the table.”
