Dressing David

Authorities in St Petersburg, Russia decided to dress the copy of Michelangelo’s David because, they say, the naked David is traumatizing children. A contest will be held where citizens will suggest modest outfits for the world’s most famous statue. Time has come finally to hold David to the standards of decency.

9 responses to “Dressing David”

  1. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    “I’m just worried David is cold with no clothing,” said nobody in St. Petersburg.

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I’d prefer that to the suggestion that poor David is perving on children.

      This concern about children is especially cute in a country that doesn’t manage to criminalize child beating because “It’s part of our traditional values.”

      Like

  2. Fie upon this quiet life Avatar
    Fie upon this quiet life

    Having just seen the real David in Florence last month, I don’t think it’s the children who are being traumatized. I think it’s the women who have to put up with men who aren’t as perfect as David.

    (This is a joke. But seriously, I fell in love with that statue. It’s mesmerizing!)

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I’m dying to go! Loved your travel posts.

      And yes, absolutely, these are adult desires displaced onto children.

      Like

    2. Shakti Avatar
      Shakti

      I think it’s the women who have to put up with men who aren’t as perfect as David.
      In classical Greek statuary, and statues that imitate it, not every proportion is true to life because it was considered vulgar.

      Could you imagine the conniptions people would throw over a copy of The Ecstacy of St. Theresa?

      Like

      1. Clarissa Avatar

        The only hope is that they won’t even understand what the hell she’s doing. 😆😆😆

        Like

  3. Spiderbaby Avatar
    Spiderbaby

    Lol, this reminds me of a an old episode of “The Simpsons” 😀

    http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/9/94/Michelangelo.png/revision/latest?cb=20121216031521

    They could as well ask a sculptor to make an original statue, because covering the David from the neck below makes it pretty pointless 😐

    Like

  4. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    Hasn’t this already been done?? This sounds exactly like Léo Caillard’s viral photoshopped “Hipsters in Stone” project.
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/jeremybender/classical-statues-get-hipster-makeover?utm_term=.kdR6WnZoR#.ruMZ2A473

    Like

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m surprised none of your readers have mentioned that David has been dressed before. At the Victoria & Albert Museum, you can still view the fig leaf that was made for the plaster cast of David that Queen Victoria received as a gift from the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1857.

    I leave it to you to draw any connections between mid-Victorian Brits and 21st-century Russians.

    Like

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor