Is Michelangelo’s 'David' Pornography?
PJ Media,
by
David P. Goldman
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
4/2/2023 11:14:25 AM
Hillsdale College, a revered institution at which I have had the honor to lecture on several occasions, revoked the Tallahassee Classical School’s license to use its curriculum after the Florida institution fired its principal for showing a photo of Michelangelo’s nude statue of David without notifying parents. At least one parent considered the image pornographic. Hillsdale explained, “This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David” sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education. Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 4/2/2023 11:17:24 AM (No. 1439276)
Whatever happened to "I know it when I see it"?
9 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Banjo Willy 4/2/2023 11:17:25 AM (No. 1439277)
Well ....... not til you brought it up
9 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
downnout 4/2/2023 11:53:40 AM (No. 1439313)
There is something profoundly sad about people who must analyze to death the obvious. Michelangelo’s sculptures are magnificent. They don’t need anyone’s approval.
29 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
DVC 4/2/2023 12:13:58 PM (No. 1439324)
Well, not, but it also isn't appropriate for very young children.
16 people like this.
Out of curiosity Poster #4, why no small children?
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Daisymay 4/2/2023 12:28:39 PM (No. 1439342)
They should just put a pair of Boxers on him if it's so offensive!
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 4/2/2023 12:48:24 PM (No. 1439363)
Anyone who would deem Michelangelo’s statue of David as “pornographic” is an idiot whose opinions are beneath consideration in public debate.
26 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 4/2/2023 12:48:31 PM (No. 1439365)
I'd be curious what that parent tells their children about sex. Are they ok with the school discussing sex? At some level they aren't. This is how 'junior' grows up clueless and pregnant or fathering a child. Who will feed, cloth, and provide for that child? Bet nobody had that discussion either. Then the 'parents' discover they never liked one another in the first place!
1 person likes this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
MDConservative 4/2/2023 12:48:55 PM (No. 1439366)
#1 - Someone saw it that way.
There's something missing in this story, a key point in my mind. What grade was the child whose parent(s) objected? To simply say "K-12 art curriculum" isn't sufficient, which is common for certain hyperbolic sites often posted here.
The other problem is that shoes fit on both feet. And in today's day and age those who wish to create/maintain chaos come from all sides. It's tytt for tatt. Everyone is a hypocrite, it seems. So, why listen to anyone?
So, suppose David was a piece of contemporary LGBTQ+ art...what would you say if your local museum or public gallery included it for Pride Week? Right there with the drag shows? Or if it was included in your primary school's reader as an illustration? As noted in the article, the artist, great as he was, could well have been GAY!
As a public charter school, maybe Florida should revoke its charter, disband its board of trustees, and send the students back to their regular government schools...why not?
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
udanja99 4/2/2023 12:52:10 PM (No. 1439370)
Of course it’s not pornography. The “Karen” who complained should be shunned and her child removed from the school. Let the kid go to public school if the mom really wants to complain about pornography. (I’m assuming that it was the mom. I don’t think that most men would make such a complaint.)
If you have never seen this statue in person, it is worth the price of a plane ticket to Florence. When I went to see it I was a student at art school and my visit lasted more than 2 hours - I just couldn’t pull myself away. Magnificent doesn’t even come close.
18 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
jalo1951 4/2/2023 12:55:12 PM (No. 1439377)
I have been to Florence, Italy and have seen this magnificent piece of art in person. They say if you stand very still, and if you are very quiet and look closely, you can see David breath. It takes your breath away. The human body is not pornographic simply because it is standing nude. Michelangelo did not sculpt David in a sexually pornographic image. In today's environment maybe parents should have been advised but I believe this is an over correction and the parent is over reacting. The sum total of the beauty of this statue is not the fact that you can see David's private parts. It is symbolic of God being on the side of the righteous when they stare evil in the face. If all you see are David's genitalia then you are the one with the problem. There are magnificent pieces of art waiting to be admired and enjoyed and I hope that nudity will not prevent you from enjoying the work of the masters.
22 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LadyHen 4/2/2023 12:59:31 PM (No. 1439384)
fta:
After I had droned on for a while, my daughter said, “Dad, was Michelangelo gay?” Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. The great artist probably was, although scholars think the evidence is inconclusive.
---
What a telling exchange on the author.
What a load of unmitigated horse manure this article is. Our God is not Zeus, mercurial and all too human. He is not a fabrication of human imagining. Nor are we humans clay dolls held together by his spittle. We are made in the image and likeness of God and God came to this Earth and took on our body as His own to bring to fruition of our salvation. As a Christian I reject this authors ideas entirely due to the very real belief we have in the salvation and sanctification of mankind and all creation through the good ministrations of the loving Physician of our soul. All of creation have been sanctified by His Grace and Mercy... in this season we should be most acutely aware of this.
We took our 4 year old daughter to the Louvre and to D'Vinci's house in Amboise. We saw countless nude statues and paintings that are genuine art and not pornography. Just because some are intellectually incapable of explaining to a child what true art is doesn't mean everyone is so hobbled.
9 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Son of Grady 4/2/2023 1:02:02 PM (No. 1439387)
Whose ever mind goes there is probably a Perv.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
SALady 4/2/2023 1:34:51 PM (No. 1439415)
This has nothing to do with "pornography", and everything to do with how frustrated parents of young children in our public schools are feeling right now!!!!!
They are being lied to and kept in the dark, while their children are being groomed with every "woke" evil known to mankind. Many of them are just at their breaking points, and are going to snap when they get nudged just one step too far.
While I don't have a problem with showing art such as this to older children, I am not going to judge this parent without knowing what other things the school has subjected her child to (probably without her knowledge or consent).
The very fact that this writer's 8-year-old daughter asked if Michelangelo was "gay" after seeing this statue in person tells you volumes of how woke indoctrination is affecting our kids.
16 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 4/2/2023 1:42:48 PM (No. 1439422)
No.
But, there is a level of age appropriateness that goes with any work of art.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 4/2/2023 2:28:57 PM (No. 1439457)
Re #5, because on the one hand, we teach young children to keep their clothes on in public, and here is an image of a man without any clothes. That is confusing and difficult to explain until kids are aware enough that they can understand....."it's because it's art"....which is still a fairly lame reason, actually.
I don't think that this great piece of art ,which I have seen several times in Firenze, would have been any less magnificent if he was partially covered. I love Michelangelo's work, and have no particular problems with nudity in art, but it is confusingly inconsistent for little kids.
4 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
BarryNo 4/2/2023 2:35:10 PM (No. 1439460)
Pornography requires more than nakedness.
Most Greco-Roman style sculptures celebrate the human form, and a few DO descend into pornography, but it's usually quite obvious. I must admit, if they were still in the painted state, it might be an easier sell.
3 people like this.
Adam and Eve were not ashamed of their nakedness until they disobeyed God and forfeited their innocence by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/2/2023 4:13:58 PM (No. 1439496)
The article was not about “very young children”. Young children have teeheed about nudity and drooping penises since probably the beginning of time, a not unhealthy attitude. They are probably far more confused and troubled by rhe sounds they hear coming from mommy and daddy’s bedroom late at night.
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/2/2023 4:25:02 PM (No. 1439501)
No one is more innocently naked than a baby or very young child. They are taught by their parents that nakedness is “naughty”. Adults are the ones who think “porn” when they see nakedness, not little kids. Unless their parents have indoctrinated them.
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
czechlist 4/2/2023 4:40:53 PM (No. 1439507)
I think people are missing the point. The issue is that parents were not notified prior to the event. Parents gave the right to know what their children will see, hear and be taught. The parents may be prudish but it is their children and their right to decide - not the teacher's nor the school's.
Now, let's talk about drag queen story hour
9 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
anniebc 4/2/2023 6:30:10 PM (No. 1439577)
Agree with poster #21. We live in an over sexualized world. Something like the Michelangelo didn't have to have content in days past. Every bit of parental involvement possible is needed these days. For sure.
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Venturer 4/2/2023 6:40:17 PM (No. 1439586)
I don't know if it's porn or not, but Dave must have just gotten out of a cold shower.
1 person likes this.
Ignorance is plentiful on both sides here. There is, after all, something known as "age appropriate". Try using a little common sense, you are supposed to be adults. The only thing you are going to get out of young children is a lot of snickering and giggles. They are hardly mature enough to appreciate fine art or sculpture. It seems to me that some teachers need to realize that their duty to their students is to teach them the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, The finer points of learning come at a much later date when they have been given the tools of appreciation and basic skills and knowledge as well as a background in history.
Pathetic, you should all be ashamed of yourselves,
0 people like this.
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