Gay renaissance painting

Queer Storytelling in Visual Media

The Renaissance through the 17th Century

The Renaissance saw a resurgence of the Classical arts and the birth of humanism (Smalls ). The humanists were interested in reconnecting the Classical stories they were familiar with their pederastic origins, as skillfully as with the conservative Christian and Catholic themes that had prevailed in art and society for the past millennium. In Italy, one of the hearts of the Renaissance, humanism led to the increasing toleration of hedonism and bisexuality as Classical values. Classical myths dignified homosexual intercourse, and artists were both privately and publically homosexual.

As the prevalence of public homosexuality increased, so did the repression of homosexuality. In Venice, the Signori di Notti and then the Council of Ten prosecuted cases of sodomy and sentenced those found guilty to corporal punishment and execution (Ruggiero ). Religious fundamentalists increased with the Protestant Reformation, during which time both the Protestant and Catholic churches b

Vaishnavi Srivastava

Happy Pride! As Pride Month kicks off we at Abir Pothi compiled a list of paintings in art history that are, well, just a little bit fruity. So next hour a boomer hits you with a “I come from a generation where a couple means a man and a woman” you have 11 instances to show how wrong they really are. Or you could just appreciate the beauty and affection in these artworks which they are meant to represent at their very core. Either way, following are 11 famous instances of queer affectionate being depicted in art history:

1. Bhupen Khakhar, “Yayati”.

Bhupen Khakhar is one such legend in the discourse of Indian queer art history. The openly lgbtq+ artist has a number of infamous paintings, that exhibit bold physical connection between two men. Khakhar’s works proceed in length to display themes of religious conflict and personal sexuality.

2. Michelangelo, “Victory”

The very openly erotic sculpture by Michaelangelo depicts the Renaissance-era-sculptor between the legs of his lover Cavalieri. This magnificently carved homo-erotic sculpture goes down in history as

Let's talk: Queer Renaissance Art

1) What is Queer Renaissance Art?

-Queer Renaissance Art (QRA for short) is a type of art that focuses on homosexual relationships in the Renaissance art period, stretching from the 14th to 17th century. It's name comes from the French word for “rebirth." This period is defined by its renewal of artistic standards of beauty, far different from previous art periods. The Renaissance encouraged individual thinking, so there was bound to be homosexual art work. Many painters knowingly added homoerotic undertones to their art, some even going as far as to paint same sex relationships on canvas.

2) How does QRA affect the LGBT community years later, and why was it so important then?

-Many artists back then were LGBT, and knowing this can inspire young gay artists now. As Sappho said, "Someone, I tell you, will remember us even in another time." The artist reach out to us even know, touching our souls with their work, almost as if they are reaching out to us, telling us to not forget they were there. It wa

Alan Hollinghurst

‘At last!’ was my first reaction to this book: at last a scholarly treatment of a subject I’ve been recognizing, pondering and mentally anthologising for much of my life. It’s partly a gay thing, no hesitation, to clock the backside of a marble Jason or painted gondolier, surfaces and volumes that polite analysis seems not to register, and to speculate about those artists seemingly fixated by them. In his diary in E M Forster jotted down a list of names suggesting a sort of gay lineage – Pater, Whitman, Housman – and added ‘Luca Signorelli?’ I assume he had seen his frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral, in which the naked male backside is a pivotal feature, and jumped to his possess conclusions.