Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, Vol. 3 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Michelangelo

indicating discomfort about its dual potential. What

was implicit there was explicit, if ambivalent, in his

painting of this period known as the Doni Tondo

(Holy Family, c. 1503–1506). The background nudes,

lounging intimately like Greeks at a gymnasium, may

have symbolized a pagan sensuality that was officially

superseded, but they still attest to his knowledge that

the ancients both depicted and accepted male eros.

Although evidence of obsession with the male form

abounds in his art, direct testimony about Michelangelo’s

sexual activity is lacking. His homosexuality was widely

assumed: One man tempted the artist to accept his son as

an apprentice by offering the boy’s services in bed. He

alludes to several such allegations in his poetry and

letters, only to deny them, as does his worshipful biog-

rapher Ascanio Condivi (1525–1574). Then and later,

moralists eager to exonerate him of sin claimed that the

dearth of documented acts, coupled with his protesta-

tions of chaste spirituality, meant he was not homosexual.

By less judgmental current definitions of sexuality, con-

cerned as much with desire as with its physical expres-

sion, he was homosexual in orientation, whether or not

he consummated such love. Subject equally to pagan

passions and Christian guilt, Michelangelo ruefully con-

fessed the irresolvable dilemma that ‘‘keeps me split in

two halves’’ (Poem 168).

This internal struggle is most evident in drawings he

gave to Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, the unrequited love of

his life (1533). Their imagery, mirrored in poems for the

Michelangelo. RISCHGITZ/GETTY IMAGES.

handsome youth, symbolizes Michelangelo’s conflicting

responses to infatuation through Greek myths: Jupiter’s

abduction of Ganymede represents love’s uplifting spiri-

Beginning with his contemporaries, friend and foe

tual rapture, other tales its resultant pain and fear. Cav-

alike have invoked the content or form of Michelangelo’s

alieri tried to prevent reproduction of the Ganymede,

major works as milestones in early modern representation of suggesting that the myth’s philosophical gloss would

gender ambiguity and homoeroticism. He illustrated both

not prevent the public from inferring that artist and

classical and Christian subjects, the former offering greater recipient were also linked in its more earthy, potentially

scope for overt eroticism, such as Bacchus, the bisexual wine embarrassing sense of ecstasy.

god (1496). The androgynous, tipsy divinity, accompanied

Eros played a reduced role in later works, reflecting

by a lascivious boy satyr, presided over Roman parties

Michelangelo’s sympathy with pious Catholic reformers,

featuring platonic dialogues on male love. Michelangelo’s

but his reputation persisted. In 1545, writer Pietro Aretino friend and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) praised

(1492–1556) attempted to extort a drawing, insinuating

its fusion of male and female traits, but other critics were that a gift would disprove rumors that Michelangelo only

hostile to such transgressive fluidity: Ludovico Dolce

bestowed them on men named Tommaso. At the same

(1508–1568) complained that the artist ‘‘does not know

time, he enjoyed a profound spiritual friendship with the

or will not observe these differences’’ between the sexes,

religious poet Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547), whom he

since many of his females looked like men.

complimented by gender-reversal, writing of her talents in

The colossal David (1501–1504), Michelangelo’s

active, male terms while declaring himself her passive,

best-known religious sculpture, was more conventionally

feminized beneficiary.

masculine, but equally nude; it infused an antique body

The written evidence for an early modern homoerotic

with Judeo-Christian spirit, perfecting the unstable

sensibility in Michelangelo’s art was suppressed by his grand-Renaissance amalgam of two cultures.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.