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Anyway, for now, we can happily leave Tommaso at 17-19yo, with a big asterisk. A point worth noting about Michelangelo's relationship with young-man Tommaso: Using Michael Rocke's Forbidden Friendships as a guide, it's an outlier. But then could there be a bigger outlier than Michelangelo? His attraction belongs to Paglia's Billy Bud topos. A male who carries adolescent qualities into early adulthood can still be attractive. And for a man like Michelangelo, utterly self-absorbed with his artistic mission, a more normal-aged boy would be too demanding of his energies. The true artist is never much good at true love. With pederasty, they farm out the more time-consuming mentoring to the mere mortals. Also, Michelangelo was most likely chaste. He was married to Art. Easier to achieve with a "boy" who has passed out of the red zone, a boy likely to be far less interested in a sexual relationship with a man. |