Italy is full of artworks like Donatello’s David-the first fully nude male statue since ancient times-and who but a Renaissance Italian would have thought to portray a biblical hero as a sexy, effeminate boy? After we thought about it for a while, the choice was clear. And think of the major Renaissance artists who were gay or at least fascinated by sexy male bodies: Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Cellini, Caravaggio.
There are so many statues of Antinous that we could almost do an Antinous tour: here he is, for instance-in the Vatican!-as a combination of the Roman god of wine Bacchus and the Egyptian fertility god Osiris. AntinousĪfter all, think of the Roman emperors, such as Nero, who married two of his male slaves (one as the wife, the other as the husband) or Hadrian, who had his boyfriend Antinous made into a god after he drowned in the Nile. But in the end the winner-take-all had to be Italy. Greece is an obvious contender, and, for quite different reasons, so are France and Germany.
This year, we decided to focus on one country, and the sole criterion would be which country had the most gay history of all. Last year’s tour followed our patron saint Oscar Wilde through his life, starting in Dublin, traveling to London, and ending in Paris. WHERE TO GO in Europe this year? That’s the question that confronted me as I started planning this year’s gay history trip for Oscar Wilde Tours.
