Reply #25: Why would your friend be "annoyed" at the suggestion that Da Vinci...

[Smarmie Doofus]

... might have been gay? "Confused", I could see. "Amused".... OK. Even "incredulous" ( if he thought the idea were completely preposterous).

But "annoyed"? Sounds like friend may be a bit short on objectivity where this issue is concerned.

I'm not a Da vinci scholar and Da Vinci left no Playboy magazine interviews or youtube videos of which I... or anyone alive ....am aware. Ergo we have the historical record to consider, such as it is. Here's the wiki-quickie:


>>>>>>Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by Sigmund Freud.<56>

Leonardo's most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salai and Melzi, Melzi describing Leonardo's feelings for him as both loving and intensely passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy, and acquitted.<9> Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in John the Baptist and Bacchus and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.<57>>>>>>>

So we have that plus the artistic record. It's possible that he was NOT homosexual. This possibility does NOT annoy me.

And....I'm glad he wasn't burned at the stake as a consequence of the sodomy trial.