Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Rubin, James H | Patterson, Zabet
Date
2012-12-01
Keywords
Art history | Gay, Homoerotic, Homosexual, Neoclassicism, Queer, Winckelmann
Department
Department of Art History and Criticism.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76793
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
In anticipation of a larger project, I propose a broad view of the Neoclassical period. The question of gay culture, and, particularly, where it exists before the emergence of the modern internal gay subculture in the 20th century, is a pertinent art historical topic, since the very evidence for gay communities comes in large part from visual culture. The Neoclassical period offers a rich repository of homoerotic art that is, in fact, based on self-conscious artistic expression emerging from an underground but bourgeoning homosexual community. This expression includes not only the movement's important theorist, Winckelmann, but also many of the movement's patrons, collectors, critics, and artists. Even the well-known art works that epitomize the Neoclassical style, including examples by Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, Anne-Louis Girodet, and Ingres, have absorbed the influence of this homoerotic aesthetic. Neoclassicists often used intellectual " masks" to bring homoerotic work, now identifiable as such, to the uninitiated mainstream, which accepted the work, but not without a constant ambivalence that underlines the erotic nature of the work and particularly the male nude. | 129 pages
Recommended Citation
Diamond, Robert E., "A Gay Neoclassical Movement" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2671.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2671