This is just my speculation, but last night at the lecture at NYU La Pietra, open evening our lecturer Michael Rocke mentioned amongst the hundreds of words that he reeled off to describe homosexuality that one of them was “Night” and this reminded me of the names of what are probably my favourites of all Michelangelo’s sculptures.
These are statues of Day and Night and Dusk and Dawn in the Medici Chapel, ( Cappella Medicea) , which also houses many monuments to members of the Medici family on the ground floor, in the huge gallery as well as the ones in the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence.
My favourite of all is Dusk – the contemplative man on the left of the photo below – and I have to admit that although I respect the “no touch” policy I long to stroke that shiny cold marble stomach!
Michelangelo‘s monuments to Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano di Lorenzo, Duke of Nemours. were commissioned in 1520 by Pope Clement VII and most of them executed from 1520 to 1534 before the irascible sculptor escaped from his hiding place under the chapel and left for Rome forever.
The statue of Dawn is a stretching long -legged women with a real female figure – whilst Dusk is a drowsy man pensively considering the outcome of yet another day and one feels that Michelangelo – then in his 50s and feeling very sick and fed up of of his virtual imprisonment under the sacristy – knew what that was like to have a long sorrowful day!
To me Day and Night are less convincing – Day because Michelangelo seems to have changed his mind about the position of his head, disliked the overall affect and never finished it.
Whilst Night, to return to the possible homoerotic overtones referred to above, has a boy’s face and figure with un-convincing, seemingly added as an afterthought, breasts .
There is a night-owl close by, but also a mask under her shoulder – and although Florence was renowned for being relatively liberal against homosexuality masks are generally used to try to hide something?
I am sure Michael Rocke knew exactly what he was talking about in his reference to Night – and his lecture left us in no doubt, if doubt we had ever had, as to where the artist’s sexual preference lay!
