Robilant+Voena is delighted to present three works which celebrate the seductive allure of androgynous depictions of male beauty. From a Baroque painting of a nobleman in the guise of a mythological youth, to a Rococo fantasy of an Academic male nude, to a captivatingly enigmatic contemporary portrait, Robilant+Voena will explore expressions of this compelling concept across time. 

The androgyne, an ambiguous figure of uncertain gender in whom identifying sexual characteristics may be abstracted or intermingled, traces its roots in the western tradition to the civilizations of antiquity. The Renaissance revival of ideas cultivated in the antiquity gave rise to new perspectives on androgyny. The ideal form, drawn from classical models, was male, with women’s bodies being simply imperfect versions of that normative paradigm. In later centuries, the accurate depiction of the classical male nude stood at the apex of the Academic tradition.  

Often surprising, and sometimes subversive, beautiful artistic expressions of male androgyny intrigue and delight us today, transcending not simply gender, but also the confines of time.