The controversy over the “Spigolatrice di Sapri”, the statue dedicated to the legendary farm worker at the center of Luigi Mercantini's poem on the failed attempt at an anti-Bourbon insurrection in Cilento does not subside: “They were three hundred, they were young and strong, and they died. I was going off one morning to glean, when I saw a boat in the middle of the sea ”.
The work, created by the sculptor Emanuele Stifano, was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of the local authorities and the leader of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte. But she immediately caused a sensation for the skimpy and transparent dress that allows you to clearly see the peasant's backside. A decidedly sexist version of the statue, according to web detractors.
For the former Speaker of the Chamber Laura Boldrini “it is an offense against women and the history that it should celebrate. But how can even institutions accept the representation of women as a sexualized body? Male chauvinism is one of the evils of Italy ”.
According to Monica Cirinnà, who asks for its removal, it is “a slap in the face to history and to women who are still only sexualized bodies. This statue of the Gleaner says nothing of the self-determination of the one who chose not to go to work to take sides against the Bourbon oppressor. Let it be removed! ”.
THE REPLICA - Stifano defends his choice: "If it had been for me I would have made a completely naked figure, the same goes for the Palinuro of a few years ago and for the statues I will make in the future, simply because I am a lover of the human body in general and I like to work on it. I still think that it is useless to give explanations to those who absolutely want to see depravities or various things in it ".
"At the moment in Sapri no social or political party has criticized the work or distorted the concept of work created by the artist - declared the mayor of Sapri, Antonio Gentile -. The new statue was created with skill and impeccable interpretation by the Cilentan artist Emanuele Stifano ".
(Unioneonline / D)
