Henry Scott Tuke was an English painter, notable for his depictions of seaside idylls featuring teenage boys. This epitomises his style; evocative of sea breezes, warmth; sensual and charming.
Tuke again, with an ancient world, arcadia approach to sunbathing. He's pretty blatant and whimsical; you expect nymphs and minor deities to drift through the painting; but the depiction of physique is charming, despite the sedulously placed grass.
Carravaggio was also prolific in his depiction of boys, involving them in mythical, biblical and allegorical scenes. Here is, I think, his best work, the myth of the boyflower, Narcissus, entranced by the beauty of his reflection.
A work by Frederich Leighton, ( A confirmed 'bachelor') entitled: 'Paulo.'
This is Bjorn Andresen, amazing from almost every angle, in Visconti's film Death in Venice, about a dissafected artist who becomes infatuated with a youth, named Tadzio, whilst holidaying in Venice.
This is Wladyslaw Moes, a young Polish boy, the actual, historical Tadzio, who the author of the novel Death in Venice, Thomas Mann, became infatuated with whilst holidaying, around the turn of the twentieth century.
Really???!!! This is the boy who mesmerized Mann and inspired such a masterpiece?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the author himself, the whole family was described exactly as they looked like, my question is: Where the hell is the "FLAWLESSLY BEAUTIFUL" boy with "RINGLETS OF HONEYCUTTED HAIR"????? Władzio looks like a ugly girl... or a drag queen boy!!!
If you read the novel, every single mention of Tadzio's appearance matches perfectly with Björn :D, as if HE was the boy Mann had fallen for. Imagine his reaction if he had lived to meet him!!
BJÖRN is THE ONLY TADZIO!!!!! XD
'If you read the novel, every single mention of Tadzio's appearance matches perfectly with Björn'
ReplyDelete- Except that Björn Andresen had just turned 16 when shooting of the movie was begun, whereas the original Tadzio/Wladyslaw Moes was only 11 when Mann met him and became infatuated with him. Quite a difference!
And so we should not confuse life with art. The Tadzio of the novel is not young Wladyslaw - who has already been transformed by Mann's imagination - just as Mann's Tadzio was transformed a second time when the novel was recreated in another medium.