Male–male Male–male examples, in the visual fine arts, range through history:
Ancient Greek vase art;
Ancient Roman wine goblets (
The Warren Cup). Several
Italian Renaissance artists are thought to have been homosexual, and homoerotic appreciation of the male body has been identified by critics in works by
Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo. More explicit sexual imagery occurring in the
Mannerist and
Tenebrist styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in artists such as
Agnolo Bronzino,
Michel Sweerts,
Carlo Saraceni and
Caravaggio, whose works were sometimes severely criticized by the Catholic Church. Many 19th century
history paintings of classical characters such as
Hyacinth,
Ganymede and
Narcissus can also be interpreted as homoerotic; the work of 19th-century artists (such as
Frédéric Bazille,
Hippolyte Flandrin,
Théodore Géricault,
Thomas Eakins,
Eugène Jansson,
Henry Scott Tuke,
Aubrey Beardsley and
Magnus Enckell); through to the modern work of fine artists such as
Paul Cadmus and
Gilbert & George.
Fine art photographers such as
Karl Hammer,
Wilhelm von Gloeden,
David Hockney,
Will McBride,
Robert Mapplethorpe,
Pierre et Gilles,
Bernard Faucon,
Anthony Goicolea have also made a strong contribution, Mapplethorpe and McBride being notably in breaking down barriers of gallery censorship and braving legal challenges.
James Bidgood was also an important pioneer in the 1960s, radically moving homoerotic photography away from simple documentary and into areas that were more akin to fine art surrealism. In Asia, male eroticism also has its roots in traditional
Japanese shunga (erotic art), this tradition influenced contemporary Japanese artists, such as
Tamotsu Yatō (photography artist),
Sadao Hasegawa (painter) and
Gengoroh Tagame (
manga artist).
Female–female Female–female examples are most historically noticeable in the narrative arts: the lyrics of
Sappho;
The Songs of Bilitis; novels such as those of
Christa Winsloe,
Colette,
Radclyffe Hall, and
Jane Rule, and films such as
Mädchen in Uniform. More recently, lesbian homoeroticism has flowered in photography and the writing of authors such as
Patrick Califia and
Jeanette Winterson. Female homoerotic art by lesbian artists has often been less culturally prominent than the presentation of lesbian eroticism by non-lesbians and for a primarily non-lesbian audience. In the West, this can be seen as long ago as the 1872 novel
Carmilla, and is also seen in cinema in such popular films as
Emmanuelle,
The Hunger,
Showgirls, and most of all in
pornography. In the East, especially
Japan, lesbianism is the subject of the
manga subgenre
yuri. In many texts in the English-speaking world, lesbians have been presented as intensely sexual but also predatory and dangerous (the characters are often
vampires) and the primacy of heterosexuality is usually re-asserted at the story's end. This shows the difference between homoeroticism as a product of the wider culture and homosexual art produced by gay men and women. ==Examples in writing==