The Holy Bible: NSFW!!!

As it is Sunday, the day of our Lord, may I kindly draw your attention to a delightful piece from The Advocate online, The Golden Age of Denial: Gay Bible Porn by Christopher Harrity, which looks at over twenty images of teh male hotness in Renaissance and Baroque religious paintings.
It is, one has to say, a somewhat limited palette, with just four recurring tropes; Saint Sebastian, David, the flagellation of Christ, and the resurrection of the flesh. 
Above you can see The Flagellation of Christ by Bacchiacca which, notes Harrity, "seems to want us to focus elsewhere than on the son of God. And then there is the awkward issue of the hats."
Younger readers may be surprised to learn there was a time long ago when the internet did not exist, and this was how chaps could get away with watching some dude-on-dude action; "Naked muscle men and milky-skinned youths as subjects of art were fine as long as they were in support of religious, mythological, or allegorical works. There had to be a moral message, however flimsy, attached to the work. Honor, strength in battle, and sacrifice were all noble subjects that were used to justify presenting some pretty hot stuff...
"If the master of the household or the local priest had a breathtaking moment of rapture in front of a particularly vivid depiction of the flagellation of Christ, for example, that trembling feeling in the pit of the stomach, or maybe a bit lower, could be safely interpreted as religious fervor and passion."
Perhaps it was a selection of images such as these that were on the USB stick of poor Father McVeigh and which led to that terrible misunderstanding last month?
Enjoy!