Two tours following in the footsteps of the two greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Two different towns to choose: Rome with its eternal beauty, and Milan,
the fashion Capital, hosting Expo 2015. Just one relationship that
links one to the other: the homosexuality of the two artists. Two
itineraries through the Renaissance mentality, a way to travel deep inside this flourish time born in Italy and still living in Italians in some way.
“Pope Francis and his step forward on gay rights has brought back many gay people to the Church” says Alessio Virgili CEO and Founder of Quiiky, the tour operator organizer of these tours. “His
open mind is almost revolutionary and gay people seem to have
appreciated it. Even the Vatican Museums has registered a high presence
of a lgbt audience in the recent period.”
Now, for the first time, with Quiiky tours it is possible to admire
Michelangelo and Leonardo works and paintings, getting knowledge of
their private homosexual life that had so much influenced their way of
making art. Gay friendly and well-informed guides lead you through the
Vatican Museums in Rome and the locations linked to Leonardo’s life in
Milan, to examine how much their works reflect their way of thinking and
their beauty conception.
Starting from Rome and the Vatican Museums, Quiiky
gay friendly tours help you to notice many interesting details the
classic history of art has always ignored. For instance the Belvedere
Apollo that inspired Michelangelo for the young Jesus, because it is
harmonious like a ‘twink’, a young homosexual guy with an effeminate
look. In the Sistine Chapel, inside the most important painting in the
world, the “Giudizio Universale”, you will discover in heaven same-sex
guys kissing each other to celebrate their assumption.
In Leonardo’s paintings you will have surprises as well. Just notice
the face of John the Baptist in his portrait and in the Last Supper,
an effeminate face clearly painted on the model of Salaì, the young
disciple who worked with Leonardo. It seems that the genius had a very
close relationship with this guy “keeping me fool” he uses to say in his
scripts. In the Last Supper you will find items on this kind of
relationship, transposed in the characters of Jesus and St. John, the
favorite apostle of Jesus.
There are many hidden and not hidden particulars such as these, most
of them even unknown by most of the people. In Renaissance period,
homosexuality was usual so why should we have to hide it, after
centuries? The experience of a tour showing clearly also these details represents a brand new way to understand the real art.
