EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Donatello’s Bronze David in the 21st Century: Controversy over Gender in an Icon” with Dr. Peter Weller

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EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Donatello’s Bronze David in the 21st Century: Controversy over Gender in an Icon”
Presented by Hollywood Legend and Art Historian Dr. Peter Weller
With Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

No single work of sculpture has generated the gender debate of Donatello’s bronze David. The case for David’s homoeroticism depends on two suppositions: First, the figure’s alleged prurient physical deportment; for to look at the bronze, as it stands in the Bargello makes it seem camp, gay, sweet, effeminate or any other gender cliché. Secondly, its iconography must be secular, not religious. For if religious, that is, if the David, Renaissance sensibilities would have rejected the blatant eroticizing of any ancestor of Christ. Reviewing crucial opinions on this work and my own life mistakes on gendering anything or anyone, this talk argues against both suppositions and contends that any intentional gendering of Donatello’s bronze David is adduced from false display, fallacious interpretation, and twentieth-century myopia. In fact, after presenting this same paper in Venice, Italy, in 2010 at the prestigious Renaissance Society of America, a noted scholar began a verbal attack matched with a London barrister and stomped out!

For more on Dr. Peter Weller, please click here.

The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.

Please note:

• Your participation is confirmed once you have purchased your ticket. You will receive the Zoom link to join the presentation circa 30 minutes before the start time.
• Space is limited for this lecture; only the first 1,000 people to click the “BOOK NOW” link will be able to tune in.
• VIDEO RECORDING of the webinar will be available for unlimited streaming at your convenience for 7 days after the event.