Italy Day

A few weeks ago a new viewer from Italy named Leo reached out to me via the blog contact form, 

and we had an enjoyable exchange of messages.  That inspired today's series, a walk 

through the male nude history of things Italian.  We start with the Second 

Century Roman version of Silenus and the Infant Dionysus.

Grazie, Leo for inspiring todays set.

 

Castor or Pollux

Michaelangelo sculpted this statue of Castor . . . or is it Pollux? . . . outside 

the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  Nobody is really sure which is which.

 

Giovanni Fontana

There were at least three noteworthy Italian artists named Giovanni Fontana.  For our purposes, we will look at the one who lived from 1795 to 1845.  The three photos in this post are thought to be academic pieces from his time at the Academy of Genoa as a student.  He returned there later in life as a professor, and he is best known for his Neoclassical work in churches.

The drawing below shows that although Giovanni Fontana was a Neoclassisist,

he didn't always depict male nudes in the Classical style.

 

Von Gloeden

Although Wilhelm von Gloeden was German, I couldn't do a historical set on Italy 

without including his work.  After all, 99% of his models were Italians.

 

Guido Keller

This is Italian aviator Guido Keller from 1925.  Although his family was of Swiss origin, he was Italian through and through, briefly becoming a fascist before his criticisms got him thrown out of the party.

 

Frank Lombardo

The next three photos in the series are from my collection of Italian-American physique models.  We get a view of some chest hair in this photo of Frank Lombardo, something a bit unusual at the time it was made.  He was known to have modeled for Vulcan, Jack Sidney, Male Today, and Champion, but I was unable to find a photographer attribution for this particular photo.

 

Frank Affrunti

 

Lon of New York took this photo of an impressive Frank Affrunti.

Lon used a number of fine Italian-American models.

Richard Vertucci

Chuck Renslow of Kris Studio took this excellent photo 

of Italian-American model Richard Vertucci.

 

Chubby on the beach

One of the FKK magazines went out of its way around 1970 to show the international reach of the European naturist movements.  This was one of their entries for Italy.

 

Boys of Italy 2

In the deluge of male nude publications following the late 1960s liberalization of U.S. obscenity laws, several foreign entries hit the American scene.  One of them was Boys of Italy from the early 70s, 

and it was successful enough to get a second edition, cover shown above.  It was apparently 

produced by someone named Jurgen, which sounds German.  I have enough photos 

from the two magazines to do a complete series if anyone is interested.

 

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was a gay Italian poet, film director, writer, actor, and playwright.  

To call him radical would be a huge understatement, and his life was too interesting 

and complicated for me to summarize here.  I suggest his Wikipedia entry:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Paolo_Pasolini

The 1975 promotional poster above is from Salo', or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pasolini's final

 and most jarringly sadomasochistic movie.  The image below may be from the same film, 

but Google Images search came up only with it being his.

 

Paul and Johnny

Paul Labriola and Johnny Longo combine to make a great duo picture.

 

Pasolini

This is Pier Paolo Pasolini, a gay Italian actor, writer and political figure.  Google him 

and learn about his interesting, if tragic, life.  I think this may be from one of his movies.

 

Robert

Chuck Renslow posed Robert Lucerno in bell bottom pants with a fishnet here.  Mr. Renslow did quite a bit of sailor themed work, sometimes even using real sailors from the Great Lakes Naval Base.

Used by kind permission of copyright holder, Leather Archives and Museum of Chicago.

 

Columbus Day Special

Poor Columbus Day.  First it was relegated like so many U.S. holidays to a Monday rotation 

that only occasionally coincided with the actual date.  Then it was declared seriously politically incorrect.  Those of us of a certain age will remember the history or geography teacher observing 

it with a special lesson or a silly poem.  For Italian-Americans, it was always a big deal.  So I'm observing it today, politically correct or not, with an all Italian model series.  We'll start with a 

double dose by posting this photo of Bill Franchi, an Italian model, by Jean Ferrero, a French photographer of Italian descent.  The rest will be Americans.  

Dedicated to my good friend Mike P., who loves all things Italian.

 

Tony

Sometimes it's hard to tell Bob Mizer's fake nature rooftop sets from the real thing, 

but this time I'm going with fake.  There's nothing fake about Tony DeMarco, though.  

Heavy five o'clock shadow, that shock of hair, and last, but not least, a very fine rear end.

 

Rudy

Bruce of LA photographed Rudy Valenti on a mid-century modern bench.

 

Robert

Robert Lucerno posed for Chuck Renslow of Kris in this nicely lighted picture.

 

Bill

The great Don Whitman of Western Photography Guild took this posing strap photo of Bill Pugliese.

  I included it because some of you will go crazy over the exposed thatch . . . and I'm not talking 

about the grass here, folks.  Also, I knew a great guy in New Orleans named Pugliese 

who was almost as good looking as the one in the picture.

 

Ricky

Ending the Columbus Day series with a playful 

Barrington picture of Ricky Alboni on a trapeze.