Le mascherate maschili -- Italia omoerotica

Speranza

Valeria Finucci.

The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the

Italian Renaissance,

(London: Duke University Press, 2003), p. 170. As the title suggests,

Finucci’s book considers the performative qualities of masculinity in Renaissance Italy.

Particularly interesting is her examination of masculinity as a response to castration

anxiety. As the characters in all three of Titian’s Old Testament series in the Santo

Spirito can be seen as responding to the demands of the Father, one could potentially

draw similar conclusions about their fears of emasculation.