Vitruvian Man Olympics Song Missing Genitals on Rai

In the theme song that anticipates the start of the broadcasts of the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina, the first image is the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci: however, the work is missing the genitals, which compared to the original drawing have been replaced by a halo of the same color as the background. Opposition parties have accused RAI, which as a public service broadcaster is responsible for broadcasting the Games, of censoring them.

The Democratic Party has made it known that it will ask a parliamentary question to the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli (independent but close to the right) asking whether there was consensus for the changes to the original work. The 5 Star Movement spoke of “living room censorship”.

Rai he replied that the controversy is “specious”, given that the promotional contents of the Olympics are not within its competence but were created and distributed byOlympic Broadcasting Servicesthe official division of the International Olympic Committee that deals with everything surrounding the broadcast of the Games. He said the theme song was then provided identically to all broadcasters broadcasting the Games around the world, who could not alter it if they chose to air it. In recent days, Rai is also dealing with criticism and strikes for the disastrous commentary by Paolo Petrecca, the director of Rai Sport, at the opening ceremony of the Games.

The Vitruvian Man is a drawing made on paper in pen and ink by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490. It represents a human body inscribed in a circle and a square, considered perfect figures: the first represented divine perfection and the second earthly perfection. For Leonardo, the human body inscribed in those figures therefore had ideal proportions.