French school students express their displeasure towards a Renaissance nude artwork

French Education Minister Gabriel Attal has visited a school where students refused to look at a 17th-Century painting depicting nude women. The students claimed to be offended by the artwork by Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari and accused their teacher of making racist and Islamophobic remarks, a claim denied by the school. In response to the incident, teachers at the Jacques-Cartier school in Issou, near Paris, refused to work. The painting in question, titled Diana and Actaeon, is from the Renaissance era and portrays a scene from Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. It depicts the hunter Actaeon stumbling upon the goddess Diana and her nymphs bathing, with Diana and four female nymphs shown fully nude. The incident has caused tensions at the school, which has been dealing with complaints from parents about coursework and punishments since the start of the term. The situation is reminiscent of the murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was killed three years ago after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class. French authorities believe that false rumors spread about the class contributed to inciting the murder carried out by an 18-year-old radicalized Chechen refugee. Last week, six teenagers were convicted for their involvement in the murder. The students involved in the painting incident will face disciplinary procedures, according to Minister Attal. On Tuesday, classes resumed at the school after several days of interruption, with Minister Attal offering his full support to the teachers.