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Alla Nazimova as Salomé (1923).
I wrote a while ago about Alla Nazimova’s luscious silent film production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, a suitably Decadent affair with an allegedly all-gay cast, and costume and stage design based on Aubrey Beardsley’s celebrated illustrations. The film is currently touring England and Wales with a new score for four musicians [...]

A brace of elegant fencers posing for an Elle Italia spread by photographer Ruven Afanador whose Torero series was highlighted here in April. Afanador’s recent work is worth a look for the set showing a model posing in an antiquated schoolroom among bones and stuffed animals. Via Homotography.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with [...]

David (c.1872).
I’d marked out this statue as a suitable addition to the burgeoning men with swords archive some time ago but it took the discovery of a piece of writing to prompt this post. Antonin Mercié’s statue of David resides today in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, but I managed to miss it on my [...]

This is something you don’t generally see in swashbuckling films, a duellist being stabbed through the eye. To judge by the plates in Nicoletto Giganti’s sword-fighting manual it seems to have been a very common form of attack; duels with bare blades were a serious business. For some reason most of the combatants in these [...]

It’s inevitable when writing about gay art and artists that Oliver Frey’s name will turn up eventually, so here’s the requisite posting. Frey is often better known in gay circles under the nom de plume he used in the 1980s, “Zack”, when he was a very prolific illustrator and comic artist for Britain’s small number [...]

Foiled again… Model Mathias Lauridsen photographed by Kacper Kasprzyk. Thanks to Thom for the tip!
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive

“For A Definition Of The Nude”.
After yesterday’s post I can’t resist repeating something seen at Fabulon, Thombeau and I both being cock fans (so to speak). Dimitris Yeros is a Greek artist and photographer whose site features a series of studies of male and female nudes juxtaposed with a variety of animals. This isn’t the [...]

Art historians claim Van Gogh’s ear ‘cut off by Gauguin’

Beach Day.
Two new archive additions for the price of one today via artist and photographer Felix D’Eon. These are from his Flickr pages but there’s more work on his website, from sketches to scenes of dreamy homoerotica.

Man with Sword.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
• The recurrent pose archive
• The men with swords [...]

How else to name this obsession? (Which, it should be noted, is more a mild preoccupation than a full-on fetish.) Xiphoid isn’t a word one hears very often:
\Xiph”oid\ (?; 277), a. [Gr. ? sword-shaped; xi`fos a sword + ? form, shape: cf. F. xiphoide.] (Anat.)
(a) Like a sword; ensiform.
(b) Of or pertaining to the xiphoid [...]

Don’t try this at home… Model Clark photographed by Neil Bradley as part of a deviantART set.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Secret Lives of the Samurai

The Chevalier d’Eon wins a fencing bout.
I’ve known of the cross-dressing Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Thimothée d’Eon de Beaumont—or the Chevalier d’Eon (1728–1810) to give him his title—for some time thanks to a typically witty and informative entry by Philip Core in Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth (1984). The nobleman rubs shoulders there with the equally flamboyant [...]

The name’s d’Eon. Chevalier d’Eon | “He was an 18th-century spy who loved to cross-dress and swordfight.”

Three Spheres II (1946) by MC Escher.
Celebrating the third { feuilleton } anniversary and post number 1,438. It’s become customary now to list the most popular posts of the past year so here we go again:
• The Underwater Sculpture Gallery. This has been surprisingly popular for several months now, despite pictures of the artworks in [...]

I missed posting something about Strapped: The Art of the Decorated Jockstrap while the exhibition was running last month at the London College of Communications but better late than never with this. Designer Colin Corbett’s playful additions to the humble jockstrap hit so many spots of obsession it’s like he read my mind: black clothes, [...]

An ad campaign which can’t possibly be ignored given the present train of obsessions. Andrés Ramírez photographs a collection of tight packages for underwear manufacturer, Macho. I’m not sure what a group of Roman gladiators would be doing sparring in what appears to be a Bollywood boudoir like the one in Moulin Rouge! but, ya [...]

An engraving from circa 1470 by Antonio Pollaiuolo (1433–1498), presented in part for all those who arrive here searching for “naked men” although this also fits the men with swords category. One-handed Googlers will no doubt be disappointed by a mere drawing but that’s their problem. The British Museum site looks at the possible interpretations [...]

Or should that be hussy? What’s the male equivalent of a hussy anyway? I think we should be told, etc. The beefcake model is George O’Mara and the 19th century military gear makes a change from the usual Greek or Roman props.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive

Parsifal by deviantArt user Divadlo. From the Mutual Friendly Opera Project, a series illustrating various operas.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The faces of Parsifal
• Willy Pogàny’s Parsifal

Men and their swords.

• Salomé scored

• Fencing fashion again

• Antonin Mercié’s David

• Nicoletto Giganti’s naked duellists

• The art of Oliver Frey

• Fencing fashion

• The recurrent pose #26

• Xiphophilia

• Katana twink

• Eonism and Eonnagata

• Macho men

• Battle of the Naked Men

• Naked hussar

• Parsifal

• Cocteau’s sword

• Vintage swordplay #3

• Vintage swordplay #2

• Sword on the rocks

• [...]