Tuesday’s episode of Tosh.O inspired today’s post – it was awesome in a somewhat disturbing way!  If you missed it, go to the link and watch it.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment (detail), 1537-1541, fresco.  Sistine Chapel, Vatican

The jury is still out regarding Michelangelo’s sexuality, both among scholars and on Wikipedia and similar websites.  Certainly his seemingly erotic poems to Tommaso dei Cavalieri, which some argue are purely Neoplatonic in nature, and his amorous sonnets to Vittoria Colonna muddy the waters.  Of course the Cavalieri poems were written by a middle-aged Michelangelo and the sonnets to Colonna were penned by the maturing master.  At the end of the day, who really cares whether Mike loved boys or women?  Not me.

With that acknowledged, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings are filled with many WTF moments that speak to his awareness of the various sexualities.  Today’s detail above comes from The Last Judgment (1537-1541) on the wall behind the altar.  The fresco centers on Christ.  To his left are the damned who are destined for Hell and to his right are the righteous who are raised to Heaven.  Amidst the damned are two pairs of nearly nude muscular gents in a lip locking embrace in addition to a bearded man who stares longingly into the eyes of a younger man.  Pretty racy imagery for the most holy room in all Christendom…  Rather than look for a self-portrait in the flayed skin of Saint Bartholomew, perhaps we should turn our attention to that bearded man?  Enjoy!

BTW, I don’t advice trying to take a picture of the above details when you visit the Sistine Chapel, unless you want the annoying guards to confiscate your camera or delete your pictures.  So in the spirit of those DB guards, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Quiet!  No peak-tures!  Shhhhhhhhhh!  Quiet!”