I've already posted it on my twitter, but I wanted to post it here too since this is my favorite social media and I can yap more here.
I wanted to share a little fun fact I learned about a VERY famous painting: this man isn't really Jesus Christ; that's Tommaso Dei Cavalieri — Michelangelo's gay lover! The artist wanted to make his lover immortal and ig he succeeded on that! (kinda? I mean, not much people really know who Tommaso is, they just think that's Jesus so idk if that's a win or not.)
I don't really got to know how people started thinking he was Jesus Christ, but that's literally just Michelangelo's little boyfriend, and I find the way he used to draw and sculpt Tommaso very romantic!
I also wanted to say that I'm very upset that there's no tag to Tommaso so I'm creating one.
This is NOT Tommaso dei Cavalieri, this is a more modern design of Jesus. The idea that Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci codified people’s idea of Jesus with art of their boyfriends keeps getting circulated and it’s not true (Leonardo DID paint his boyfriend as John the Baptist though!).
However, and I think this is where that misconception comes from, there IS speculation that Michelangelo modeled Christ in The Last Judgement after Tommaso!
The sad fact is we actually DON’T have any art that’s confirmed to be Tommaso. @shredsandpatches and I have been talking about why that might be lately. It’s so heartbreaking that we don’t know what Michelangelo’s boyfriend looked like, especially since M describes him as so beautiful and perfect (though going by Michelangelo’s interests, I think we can extrapolate that Tommaso had the greatest butt of the Renaissance).
One sculpture that might also be inspired by Tommaso is the Genius of Victory:
Which shows a gorgeous young man with his knee pressing down on a kneeling bearded old captive. The captive looks a little like a certain sculptor.
(This actually juxtaposes well with a sonnet Michelangelo wrote to Tommaso about wanting to be his captive, naked and bound.)
I don’t know where the assumption that “people started thinking he was Jesus Christ” comes from re that picture, it’s obviously a religious image of Christ because he has the attribute of the Sacred Heart (also it looks nothing like Michelangelo’s style, I don’t know where this particular image comes from but I know it’s a post-Renaissance design).
But yeah Tommaso deserves ALL THE LOVE and he’s so obscure. When Michelangelo’s poetry was first published (by M’s grand nephew) the pronouns in the ones addressed to Tommaso were changed to female and it wasn’t until the 19th century they were restored. Sadly Michelangelo would have preferred this because as a gay Renaissance era Catholic he was deeply conflicted about his love of men and how the Church taught that was wrong. I just want to hug him and tell him God gave him his love of men and there are churches now that are affirming.
But I’m so happy what we have about Michelangelo’s love for Tommaso has survived. Tommaso remained by his side until Michelangelo died, literally, he was at his bedside. THEY LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH.
Also. Adorable fact. Michelangelo called Tommaso Tommao, the nickname for Tommaso, and Tommao signed his letters back to M as that.
