ABSTRACT
In the visual arts, as in literature, there appears an identifiable interest in the European Mediterranean of the classical, Renaissance and contemporary periods which is both cultural and homosexual, or at least homoerotic.1 The neoclassical paintings and sculptures of the eighteenth century, the time of Winckelmann, often represented ancient society, occasionally including Greek love.2 For instance, the work of the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) provided sensuous images of figures from classical mythology (as well as of contemporaries). Some of his sculptures, though not ‘homosexual’, nevertheless laud the beauty of the male-a statue of Theseus and the Minotaur, from the early 1780s, inspired by Greek myth and imbued with Winckelmann’s aesthetics, is a smooth portrayal of male virility.3 The Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen (1768-1844) was another sculptor who lived in Rome and carved a number of figures of erotically handsome men. They include sculptures of such classical figures as Jason, Adonis, Cupid and Mars, and Mercury. Thorvaldsen did at least three statues of Ganymede as well, two of a standing youth holding a cup, one of an ephebe kneeling before an eagle which drinks from his cup. Information on Thorvaldsen’s own sexual interests is lacking, but the choice of subjects and the portrayal are suggestive.4
