The Beautiful Boy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Beautiful Boy is a book by Germaine Greer, published in 2003. Its avowed intention was "to advance women's reclamation of their capacity for and right to visual pleasure". It is a study of the youthful male face and form, from antiquity to the present day, from paintings and drawings to statuary and photographs.
The cover picture caused minor controversy when the subject of the photograph, Bjørn Andresen, a Swedish actor and musician who appeared in Death in Venice (billed by the director Luchino Visconti as "the most beautiful boy in the world") stated in the press that he objected to the picture having been used without his permission.
The book contains some 200 pictures of boys through the ages, and is a history of boys in art. Pictures and discussions range from Cupid to Elvis, Boy George, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison.
The book generated some controversy because "society is not accustomed to seeing beauty in young males", Greer claims.
Selected list of illustrations
- Giovanni Batista Caracciolo (1578-1635) Sleeping Cupid
- Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) The Death of Joseph Barra , 1794
- Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) Self-Portrait as David with the Head of Goliath, 1756[1]
- Louis-Leopold Boilly (1761-1845) Young Artists in the Studio, 1820
- Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619) Sleeping Nude Boy, which shows some similarities with Dying Slave
![[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johan_Zoffany_-_Self-portrait_as_David_with_the_head_of_Goliath_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg){kind=link}