I recently posted to the Clubhouse e-mail lists about the opening to viewers in Milan of the restored mural, "The Last Supper," a great work of art by Leonardo da Vinci. I included references to Leonardo's left-handedness, and a light-hearted subscriber who is also left-handed responded with snappy remarks about the Southpaw painter. He also referred to the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome as if it were also the work of Leonardo. In the same light-hearted spirit, I responded to his posting as follows:

Hehe! Knowing how sensual Leonardo da Vinci was, I suspect he often may have gazed at his handsome models as he painted their images on canvas with his left hand, while keeping his right hand on his dick to spray-paint their bodies with a long arc of fresh semen in moments of sexual inspiration.

However, it was Michelangelo (Buonarroti) who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for Pope Julius II at the Vatican in Rome from 1508 to 1512, most of which time he spent lying on his back on dangerously high scaffolding. Considering that some of the male models for that heroic fresco climbed up there with him, I suspect the scaffolding may have been as shaky sometimes as a four-poster bed. The figures in the fresco are so lovely that their male beauty could only have been interpreted by a gay man like Michelangelo, who knew the male body inside, outside, upside down and sideways. Hehe! Notice how so many of the "great" in any of the arts were (and are) gay. Do we have special gifts, or what?

You might enjoy renting a video of 1965's "The Agony and the Ecstasy" which is a historical epic based on the book by Irving Stone about the stormy relationship between Michelangelo (played by Charlton Heston) and Pope Julius II (played by "sexy Rexy" Harrison). It tells the story of the painting of the Sistine Chapel.

Although the film and the book were sexually pristine in the manner of the times, some historians have interpreted the extraordinary relationship between the artist and the churchman as homosexual in essence, if not in fact. My personal feeling is that Pope Julius, who was a high-spirited and pragmatic general, had a helluva time dealing with the often mean-spirited, arrogant and irascible artist who was known for being taciturn and sour. Michelangelo, in contrast to the physically appealing and much loved Leonardo da Vinci, was not considered a beauty and was often viciously at odds with someone. His was the original of the "artistic disposition."

Michelangelo, who was born when Leonardo was already 23, spent his life striving to surpass the older artist. In some ways, he did, but not in all. Leonardo was a genius at scientific observation and theoretical inventions (the tank, the airplane, the combustion engine and the submarine, among other things). His painting, "La Gioconda" (the "Mona Lisa") may be, individually, the greatest painting on canvas, but Michelangelo's sculpture "La Pieta" is the greatest sculpture, and the painting on the ceiling of the Cappella Sistina (the Sistine Chapel) ") is incomparable as a fresco, despite the glory of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper."

Michelangelo brought cold marble to life. His statue depicting the Virgin Mary with the body of Jesus lying across her lap after being taken down from the cross on Calvary (the "Pieta") moves anyone who views it to the depths of the soul. His statue of Moses. seated and facing away from the viewer, is so real that you feel if you were to touch its knee, it would turn and speak to you. I have seen these marvels myself and have watched others view them, as well, so I honestly feel that I know whereof I speak.