Was michelangelo gay

Although Michelangelo painted a huge variety of figures throughout his incredibly prolific career, his most notable and ambitious works of art are undoubtedly dominated by the male form, which has led many to speculate about whether or not this is evidence he was gay. Historians argue about this —was he gay, was he asexual, did this early traumatic experience cause him to swear off relations with anyone? But it seems clear he was somewhere on the spectrum.

Michelangelo and Tommaso dei Cavelieri As the Renaissance's greatest sculptor, Michelangelo enjoyed enough power with the Vatican that he did not need to hide his homosexual tendencies. The ambiguity of the relationship between Neoplatonic love and male homosexual culture is fully revealed through the work of Michelangelo.

what was michelangelo known for

Michelangelo was likely a homosexual and showed deep affection towards Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, a young Italian nobleman. There has been some speculation that Michelangelo might have been gay, but scholars cannot confirm his sexual preference.

He led a mostly solitary life with few known intimate relationships. Michelangelo—famed artist of the Renaissance, painter of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, sculptor of the massive marble David with killer abs and the slingshot that took down Goliath—was queer. It had never occurred to me before why would it? But as soon as it did, I felt sure I was right. Michelangelo, in the latter years of his life, had a close relationship with a young nobleman.

You know who else was queer? Leonardo da Vinci. As a young man, he was charged under sodomy laws the term used in those days and put in jail. Historians argue about this —was he gay, was he asexual, did this early traumatic experience cause him to swear off relations with anyone? But it seems clear he was somewhere on the spectrum. Also queer was Sandro Botticelli, who was charged in Florence for sexual activity with a young man as well apparently a quarter of the men in Florence at this time had such charges on the books.

No 15 th century Florentine woman ever looked like this. Queerness is under attack right now. Here in the U. Anti-queerness is being used as a wedge issue to manipulate politics and gain power, but very real lives are being harmed in the process. Very real lives will be lost. And the truth to borrow a phrase from the film Love Actually is that queerness actually is all around. After my Michelangelo revelation, I went on an historical deep dive.

Here is just a little bit of what I learned:. The first known references come from our earliest known civilization—Mesopotamia. In the temples of Ishtar, priests were bisexual and transgender. The Mesopotamian Almanac of Incantations includes prayers for both opposite sex and same sex unions. What remains of her written work celebrates love between women, as well as with men.

A free-born man could have relationships with women, younger men, and groups below him in social status—slaves, prostitutes, or actors, male or female. Partnering with a man of his own rank, however, was not allowed—because one partner would have to lower himself. Numerous Roman emperors are thought to have been actively bisexual, including Hadrian, Nero, and Julius Caesar.

The first ten emperors of the Han dynasty BCE were openly bisexual, having a favorite male companion as well as their wives. Gil in the Journal of Sex Research. Homophobia seems to have come in with the Mongols and the Manchus. When American missionaries arrived in the s, they were shocked and infuriated by these practices and did everything they could to abolish them. Because Thailand is a Buddhist country and avoided the worst of colonization and Christian missionary influence, there is greater acceptance than elsewhere in present-day Asia.

Thai Buddhists believe that kathoey are women who were born as men in order to atone for sins committed in a past life; they are thus looked upon with pity and empathy rather than hatred or disgust. Two-Spirit people of indigenous American traditions often served as healers, shamans, and ceremonial leaders. Spanish invaders used the accepted queerness in indigenous Latin America as a justification for conquest and slaughter.