“Just as it was a mistake to cover the statues of the Capitoline Museums for the visit of the Iranian president in 2016, for alleged reasons of modesty, so it is also now, for the declared reasons of mourning. The statues in the museums and squares of our cities have a strong value not only artistic but educational, poetic, identity, individual and collective encouragement. Dressing them or tattooing them with projections of commercial logos or political messages falsifies their meaning and unwittingly or willingly trivializes them, often ridiculing them. On the other hand, to cover them completely, for whatever reason, is tantamount to censorship, and therefore is opposed to the foundations of a free society ”. Thus the art historian Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, rose today against the idea of the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, who covered with a black sheet the copy of Michelangelo’s David in Piazza della Signoria as a “strong gesture »Against the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine, a black cloth on the statue of David in Piazza della Signoria in Florence
Nardella’s decision
The mayor wanted the David of Piazza della Signoria dressed in mourning: covered with a black cloth to say “No to war”. The choice of the day – two days ago – was not accidental: March 6 is also Michelangelo’s birthday. A way to express closeness to the city of Kiev with which Florence is twinned and to all of Ukraine. It comes in addition to the many solidarity initiatives launched in these hours. On the black cloth positioned on the statue of David, the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella together with some representatives of the Ukrainian community displayed the yellow and blue flag and some ribbons of the same colors. Today we want to remember Michelangelo on the day of his birth, March 6 – said Nardella -, with this gesture which is a gesture of mourning and pain. Thus we want to remember the thousands and thousands of victims who have already been counted in these ten days. Civilian victims in Kiev and in all other Ukrainian cities but also military. We also want to remember the Russian military, the young Russian soldiers sent by Putin and his government to die in a crazy, unjust and incomprehensible war so for Florence this is a day of mourning and pain for all the dead “.