Art World
A $384,000 Statue of a Decidedly ‘Curvy’ Mermaid in Southern Italy Has Sparked Controversy Online
The public artwork has been making waves on the Internet, dividing critics.
Sarah Cascone
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A particularly buxom and bootylicious statue of a mermaid has made quite a splash in the small Italian town of Monopoli, garnering widespread ridicule for its voluptuous figure—and, in particular, the sculpture’s enormous butt.
The internet got wind of the provocative new piece thanks to an Italian actress named Tiziana Schiavarelli, who shared photos of the artwork published in an article in the Monopoli Times on Facebook, remarking on the mermaid’s “two silicon boobs” and “huge ass never seen before on a mermaid.”
A mythological creature that is half human, half fish, mermaids typically are depicted with a scaly fish tail below the waist. But the latest addition to Monopoli’s public art scene has two distinctly human butt cheeks that seem more Kim Kardashian than Ariel.
The work of art students from the local Luigi Rosso art school, the sculpture is part of a new square dedicated to Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian neurobiologist who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. The €350,000 ($384,000) project in the Puglian town also includes a children’s playground.
Il Mare (2023). The sculpture by Luigi Rosso art school students, has been criticized for its large boobs and butt. Photo courtesy of Monopoli Times.
Monopoli’s mayor had asked the students to create several sculptures for the town, including one on the theme of the sea; a scaled model of the mermaid design was approved by the local council.
“The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid,” Luigi Rosso, headmaster Adolfo Marciano, told the Guardian. “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.”
But the work, titled Il Mare, has been accused of being overly sexual, and of representing a male fantasy—not the figure of a real woman, whether she be half fish or not.
Il Mare (2023). The sculpture by Luigi Rosso art school students, has been criticized for its large boobs and butt. Photo courtesy of Monopoli Times.
“Did Sir Mix-A-Lot sculpt this?” a Reddit user under the name spinereader81 asked.
“This statue is setting unrealistic beauty standards for mermaids,” a commenter named davetowers646 responded.
The artwork, shapely defined rear end and all, was scheduled to be officially unveiled yesterday, May 1. The controversy over the mermaid’s physique recalls the outrage over a monument installed in the Italian town of Sapri in 2021 that depicted a woman who aided an Italian revolutionary. The shapely Emanuele Stifano sculpture came under fire for its gratuitous depiction of the figure’s butt crack.
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