Nearly all Michelangelo's youthful male figures--with the exception,
perhaps, of the gigantic David--deviate from the decidedly masculine and
approach the mean, the human in the abstract; thus they seem to us
imbued with a quality of femininity; they even exhibit decidedly female
characteristics. I have in mind first and foremost the youths depicted
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (the most soulful adolescent
figures in the world), but also Bacchus, St. John, Adonis and the
figures in the background of the Holy Family at Florence. Cupid and
David Apollo (in the Bargello) are almost hermaphroditic, and even the
Adam, and the unfinished Slaves in the Bobili Gardens exhibit female
characteristics. Without going further into detail I would draw
attention to the breasts and thighs, which positively raise a doubt on
the question of sex. (I am referring to the two youths above the
Erythrean Sybil.) Seen from a distance they create the impression of
female figures, while the youth above Jeremiah is a perfect Hellenic
_ephebos_.
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