Male art in Vatican (1) : a guided tour

Numerous gay artists have decorated, painted, and sculpted wonderful treasures visible in the Vatican and Vatican Museums. Sometimes their works or inclination had to be discreet, still many expressed a strong eroticism in their male beauties.

A guided tour is now offered by Quikky, an Italian travel agency, called 'the secret gay Vatican tour'. This tour shows several homoerotic pieces, a sort of 'gay art history' of the Vatican. And the tour has got a large success, with articles published in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Out Traveler, Attitude, Vanity Fair, etc.

Lets have a look at some of these 'gay' treasures.

For paintings, of course there is the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo, and the famous Ignudi.  And also the Last Judgment. 

One of the guide is Tony Adams, who used to be a Catholic priest. He said about that painting : ''And it's erotic art. It tells a spiritual story, but it doesn't deny the physical dimension." Quikky also organizes a tour in Milan, where you can see the Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci. The tours are always given with extensive explanations linked to the 'hidden history' and private life of the artists, their models, or their lovers, and their art pieces of course.

In terms of sculptures observed during the tour, you can see the Apoxyomenos from Lysippus, who was a sculptor for Alexander the Great. Here with the fig leaf, which was added later on.

The Belvedere Apollo. Some considered it 'the sublime expression of Greek art'.

The busts from Hadrian, and from his lover Antinous.

 

The Laocoon and his sons. A famous and large sculpture, attributed to sculptors from the island of Rhodes. And a very old sculpture too, as it was discovered in 1505 in Rome.

St Sebastien, icon of many gays (see our previous posts on St Sebastien here).

And of course you can see many more sculptures, like angels, etc.

Sources:
The Guardian article
Quikky website
Yahoo style

The Sluggard by Lord Frederic Leighton

I guess the title of this sculpture reflects well the month of February 2016 for this blog : only one post published! :) The Sluggard is one of the famous male sculptures made by Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), who was also a painter.

The sculpture represents an athletic young male, awakening or stretching his body. Leighton was inspired to create this bronze because one of his male models – Giuseppe (Gaetana) Valona – stretched himself after he was sitting for a long while posing for one of Lord Leighton painting.

  

The first model of this sculpture was made of gypsum in 1885 and was a life-size sculpture of "The Sluggard" that is nowadays exhibited at the London Tate Gallery'', in bronze. Another version of smaller size (52 cm) was casted in bronze with Laughton's approval and signature. 

Leighton was born at Scarborough, UK, and went early to Florence, Italy, to study. He spent some time in Frankfurt, Germany, and again in Italy, in rome, before going back to UK at the age of 30.

Below photo is a statue of Lord Leighton, located on the façade of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, near the Brompton Avenue entrance. [Photograph by George P. Landow, December 1999.]

The portrait of Leighton was Brock’s diploma work for the Royal Academy and the cast which he exhibited in 1893 is at Burlington House. Lord Leighton was elected to the Athenæum in 1866.

Photograph courtesy of the Athenæum. Frederic Leighton by Thomas Brock. c. 1892. Bronze. 32 1/2 inches.

 

Two years ago, Stuart Sandford, young British artist, was inspired by the Sluggard sculpture of Leighton and made a contemporary version by photographing a model (Brad) in 3D, making a 3D printed model, later casted in aluminium, marble dust & resin, silver etc. of different sizes.

Sources :
Tate Gallery
Stuart Sandford website
Victorian Web

Achille & Patrocle (3) in contemporary sculpture & other art

To start 2016, lets continue with our famous loving couple of Achille & Patrocle! And lets have a look at how this love was expressed in more recent time. In terms of sculpture, or more precisely bas-relief,  there is one portraying Achille & Patrocle, sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844).

And for the pleasure of the eyes, some more bas reliefs from Thorvaldsen with Achille! Like below, called Briseis and Achille.

And this one, called Chiron and Achilles, was done in plaster initially, around 1888-1990. The centaur Chiron, half man half horse, teached medicine to Aesculapius, and Achille learned to play the lyre from him.  

And the last sculpted bas-relief selected from Thorvaldsen is Priam who pleads with Achille for Hector's body.

Bertel Thorvaldsen did also some drawings, like the one below showing Chiron teaching the young Achille in archery.

In more contemporary sculptures, I have found this one made by SERRA, 'Achille & Patrocle'.

And also this one, entitled Achille crying Patrocle death, sculpted by Guy van den Steen (1906-1999), which sit on one side of the entrance of his previous castle of Jehay, near Liège (Belgium), castle now sold to the city of Liege.

In terms of painting, and to end with the 20th century, here is one from the American painter David Ligare, done in 1986. 'Achille and the body of Patrocle'.

Sources:
Blog Les diagonales du temps
Blog Le chateau de jehay   
Wikipedia
Thorvaldsen Museum

Achille & Patrocle (2) in other art - ancient

In terms of other art from the past, there is a famous vase, showing Achille caring the wounded Patrocle. The vase is reportedly painted by Sosias (500 AC) and is displayed in Berlin (Germany) at the State Museum.

Below is an interesting piece : a sculpted comb bone, found in Oria around 50 BC, showing Achille pulling Hector's body behind him.  It is located in the National archeology Museum of Tarente.

At the end of the 16th century, the French engraver Etienne Delaune did the drawing below, called 'Les Petits Combats : Fight between Achille & Hector'. It can be seen in Strasbourg (France) at the 'Cabinet des Estampes et Dessins'.

During the 18th century, the French painter Hubert ROBERT did 2 very similar paintings about Alexander the Great standing in front of Achille's tomb. The first one is kept in Versailles, at the Lambinet Museum...

... while this one is located in Paris at the Louvre Museum.

 In 1793, John Flaxman did this drawing of Achille in tears. Paris, National Library.

And at the very beginning of the 19th century, in 1801, Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES did the following two drawings of Achille & Patrocle. Located in the Ingres Museum in Vidauban (France).

And some years later, this estampe was done, showing Cupidon on the left, and the dying Achille on the right, by Jean Baptiste WICAR, Jean Baptiste GUYAR, and Claude Louis MASQUELIER.  Located at the Art & Archeology Museum of Senlis (France).

Below is our last drawing about Achille, done by Henri Regnault around 1850. Located in the Louvres Museum, Paris.

The next post will be about some contemporary art pieces about Achille & Patrocle, in both sculptures and other media.

Sources:
see also first post about Achille & Patrocle (Dec 14).
Blog Mcbalson-palys
Blog Le chateau de jehay
Wikipedia

Achille & Patrocle (1) in sculptures - ancient

For a full story of Achille's life and myth, I suggest you read the various sources, mentioned at the end of this post. I will only mention a few stories extracts here.

Achille - detail - Achilleon Corfu (Greece)

In Greek mythology, Patrocle is the very close friend of Achille... This friendship was well known... and often considered of similar intensity as the one between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion.

Achille is said to have been immersed in the Styx river by his mother, holding him by the heel, to make him invulnerable. Still a teenager, he wanted a short but glorious life. Hence his willingness to join his friend and lover Patrocle for the Trojan expedition & war. Both were recruited as soldiers.
After 10 years of fighting, he quit the war area upset on Agamemnon. Learning that his lover Patrocle died, he comes back to fight, but is hit by an arrow on his heel, and died.

The sculpture below shows the young Achille wounded by the heel. It is located in the Villa Reale, Milan (Italy) and was sculpted by Innocenzo Fraccaroli (1805-1882) an Italian sculptor, who won Brera Academy’s 1829 prize for sculpture.

Earlier, when Patrocle died, a tumb was built for him, and it is said he was already waiting for Achille to join him when he would die.  

Achille - Marble sculpture know as the 'Ludovisi Ares' - 4 or 1 BC.

For the Greeks, the 'friendship' between Achille and Patrocle was of another nature. They considered them as lovers. And for them, this is fully demonstrated when seeing the deep sorrow expressed by Achille when Patrocle died. And his willingness of revenge.
The author Eschyle describes Achille mourning the death of his friend,  celebrating the body of Patrocle, missing their past kisses...  Platon, in his 'Banquet', through Phedre, says that Achille was cuter than Patrocle, and younger.

The Dying Achilles - 1854 Marble by Filippo Albacini (1777-1858). Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Italy)

Many sculptures have been made to celebrate these heroes, and other art pieces as well, as we will see in other posts. Some sculptures are located in the Achilleion in Corfu (Greece), a palace built in 1890 by the emperess Elisabeth from Austria & Hungary  (also known as 'Sissi'), to honor Achille. See below.

Another Achilles sculpture, still in the gardens of the Achilleion in Corfu.  The Greek word is his name : ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ or Achilles.

Below is the Pasquino group, where it is possibly Menelas holding Patrocle body. It is a roman copy from a greek original, located in the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Florence, Italy.

Below is a representation of Achille by Lycomedes, a bas-relief sculpted for a Athenian sarcophagius made around 240 AC. and located in the Louvre museum, Paris.

The Achille called 'Ares Borguese' (below) is dated 4 AC but there are several copies.
 Below is a marble copy made during 1 AC. located in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The one below is a copy made just after 1900, located in Chantilly (France) at Conde Museum.

Achille wounded by the heel also inspired the French sculptor Charles-Alphonse Achille Gumery, who made this one in 1850. This sculptor got the 'Prix de Rome', the 'Legion d'Honneur'. He is buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris.

Sources:
Blog Les diagonales du temps

French government Culture department website

The culture concept website
Wikipedia