Coded Desire

This output is one of the section introductions to the exhibition catalogue 'Queer British Art'. It deals with the nineteenth century contexts – in both popular and scholarly forms - for the appreciation of covertly ‘gay’ imagery among British male audiences. The chapter considers several contexts - the practices of artists, particularly those dealing with the male nude, and the new criticism of Classical and Renaissance art promoted by Walter Pater, among others. It looks at the reception of these works of art and criticism and the ways in which they are played out in more populist culture towards the end of the nineteenth century