A “too provocative” mermaid statue that was erected in a square of a fishing community in southern Italy has generated controversy.
Rita Levi-Montalcini Square, named after the scientist, sits in the town of Puglia. It is here that the now controversial statue was placed after being created by pupils from the Luigi Rosso Art School in Monopoli.
Once pictures from the piece were posted on social media, the artwork, which hasn’t been formally launched yet, came under ridicule.
One person, actor Tiziania Schiaverelli, wrote that a friend from the area had “rightly expressed some perplexity about this ‘monument’”.
“It looks like a mermaid with two silicone breasts and, above all, a huge arse never seen before on a mermaid. At least not any I know.”
Schiaverelli herself doesn’t have a problem with the piece, but stated “I am very amused by this thing … who knows if it will become a further attraction for tourists.”
The statue was defended by Adolfo Marciano, the head of the Luigi Rosso art school, who claimed it was a tribute to the large majority of women who are curvaceous. This is one of several statues the mayor of the town had asked his students to create.
“The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid,” he said. “The council was shown the scale model and said it was good, and then decided the completed sculpture would be placed in the square.”
Marciano stated that he saw the artwork as a portrayal of the reality of the feminine form.
“You see adverts on television with models who are very thin, but the mermaid is like a tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy, especially in our country. It would have been very bad if we had represented a woman who was extremely skinny,” Marciano said.
