Wh the Pope's recent statements about homosexualy, the time is right for the Catholic church to take pri s gay artists, wr <strong>Jonathan Jon</strong>
Contents:
HOLY SMOKE! TAKE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH GAY ART TOUR
* gay statues in rome *
Off the well-worn tourist track, on the North bank of the Tiber the Eternal Cy, hidn away the Foro Itali sports plex, is a vast, open-air shre to the ialised male form that most visors to Rome are unaware is rather odd – seeg as is sentially a huge, if tastefully done, gay gang-bang Carrara Stad i Marmi (‘Stadium of the Marbl’) is an open-air sports stadium pleted 1928 as a trag centre for the adjog Amy Physil Edutn. The first terpretatn of the Ganyme tale is born om the homosexual relatns that were acknowledged some ancient Greek stat.
The relatnships were not what we would today ll homosexual. Even as they emphasised the Christian msage of this scene, homosexual artists of the Renaissance were not bld to the more obv meang of the Ganyme myth.
Some patrons may have requted a versn of the Ganyme myth as an exprsn of their homosexual sir. In poetry, plays, and even mon parlance, Ganyme me to stand for both paedophilic and homosexual tast.
EXPLORG GAY ROME – THE NOMADIC BOYS
Homosexualy the morn sense was only named and acknowledged the late neteenth century. While many homosexual men had to rema gey about their love, there were some outspoken artists who were relatively open about their sir.
Today his works, cludg a patg of Ganyme before he is rried off, are some of the few ma by a homosexual artist that explore the psychology of gay men.