Michael Hone

Homoerotic Art Michael Hone

This book will not only deal with the most wonderful homoerotic works of art since our hallowed teachers the Greeks, it will fully treat the sexuality of the times so that the artists can be placed in the context of the eroticism that reigned during the Renaissance--a sexuality that involved a man's full access to both sexes. The historical context will also be made clear for those who want to know the political setting, as necessary as the gold picture frame to the real treasure: the paintings the frames encompass. Among the myriad artists developed herein, four full-length biographies will stand out, those of Michelangelo and his god-inspired nudes; da Vinci and his John the Baptist, the painting that accompanied him to his deathbed, the incarnation of his beloved Salaì; Cellini and his sensual Perseus; and Caravaggio, all of whose works are genius personified. A study of the historical background of the Renaissance will help to situate the painters and sculptors in a historical context. The background will be divided into several parts. Part I will provide the very roots of the Renaissance, anchored in Florence and de' Medici humanism. Part II will deal with Pope Julius II, known as the Warrior Pope, a name he himself cherished, a name he fully deserved. Part III will deal with other individuals of importance, among them Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, he who, along with Ferdinand and Isabelle, united the Old World with the New, bringing immeasurable wealth to Europe and equally immeasurable death under Pizarro and Cortés. The beauty of the works to follow has never been equaled. The look on the face of the boy in The Musicians by Caravaggio is the ultimate in homoeroticism, as the lad seems to be in the throes of orgasm. Boys like Juan Borgia are represented, Juan, supreme in his skin-tight trousers, billowing white shirt and black pearl-studded doublet, the garments he was wearing when brought up in a net from the depths of the Tiber, his murder related herein. Langetti's St. Sebastian, his taught arrow-pierced torso reaching upwards, greeting Death as in life he had welcomed, naked, his lover. Michelangelo's David, a gorgeous lad who might have just come out from swimming in the Arno, slightly grimacing at a friend's remark that the water must be cold, judging from his diminished manhood. The Renaissance and Italy--Italy the Eternal--and its greatest wonders, its artists, sculptors, painters, writers, and their assistants and apprentices and models; Italy's warriors, the likes of Cesare Borgia; Italy's politicians, beginning with Lorenzo Il Magnifico; Italy's humanists, the greatest of whom was Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo; and all that is and was glorious to this glorious land: in a word, its boys.