Villa Albani

Speranza

At Albani's Roman villa, Winckelmann dellighted in both the distinguished collection of antique sculpture and the homosocial atmosphere tolerant of discreet bisexuality.

In his published catalogue of the Albani collection, Winckelmann decared one relief, showing Antino as Vertumnus, to be a paragon of male beauty.

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Maron's portrait of Winckelmann reproduces this engraving.

Antino all but replaced Ganimede as the premiere archetype of MALE DESIRE in art.

But Ganimede's appearance was also inpired by Winckelmann, in a hoax painted by Giovanni Battista Casanova.

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Winckelman wrote famously on the Apollo Belvedere.