Original project, @barologlasgow
David by Michelangelo is in trouble again. The sculpture from the Renaissance was taken out of an ad for the subway train system in Glasgow, Scotland, because it showed a naked man. The situation reminds a fight that happened recently in Florida when parents of children at a conservative charter school complained that the statue was part of the curriculum. DRG Group, which runs the Barolo restaurant, put David on an ad with the words "It doesn't get more Italian." The sculpture is shown eating a slice of pizza. But at first, the company Global, which runs the advertising room on the subway, turned down the picture.
The sign was changed, and stickers of the Italian flag were put on the crotch area to cover them up. Nadine Carmichael, head of sales and marketing at the DRG Group, told the BBC, "We had stickers made, but people said they weren't big enough." "The next thing we were going to do was show Michelangelo from the waist up. In the end, we got there."
Project accepted, @barologlasgow
The head of the company that runs Barolo, Mario Gizzi, told The Times, "This is a piece of art that is known all over the world. Schools teach about it. People come from everywhere to see it. It's no longer the 1500s; it's 2023. Are we really saying that the people of Glasgow can't handle seeing a figure without clothes on?" David was at the center of a culture war in Florida. Hope Carrasquilla, the principal of Tallahassee Classical School, was fired by the school board after three parents of students complained about the statue. One parent said her child "should not be viewing those pieces." "The controversy was never about the art," the school's general counsel, Jeff Kottkamp. It had to do with following the school's policy of letting parents know when a sensitive topic is being talked about in class."
But Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, said, "As director of one of the most important museums in the world, and because Michelangelo's David is a Renaissance masterpiece and an icon of sculpture, I am surprised by the ignorance that seems to be at the heart of what happened in Florida."
Selena Mattei
