The Beautiful Boy

About this book

With over two hundred images drawn from the whole history of Western art, illustrating the vicissitudes of the beautiful male, as toy boy, virgin soldier, naked martyr or winged genius, angel or seducer, narcissist or worshipper, we are invited to appreciate boys in all their sensuality, spontaneity and vulnerability. In exploring the iconic ideal of the beautiful boy, whether a sculpture of Cupid or David, a painting by Caravaggio or Van Dyck, or a photograph by Nan Goldin or Sally Mann, Germaine Greer demolishes one of the last great Western taboos.