The Angel in the Flesh

Leonardo's Angel in the Flesh went on display for the first time in the great exhibition on Leonardo's Bridges organised by Sweden in order to celebrate its entrance into the European Community in 1993 and 1994. It received much attention by the media, making numerous newspaper headlines. And since it was all too easy to recognize the appearance of the demoniacal Salai - the handsome boy, object of Leonardo's presumed homosexual attentions - in this singular blasphemous image in the nude, the Swedish exhibition was to include another novelty, the counterpart of the same character in the painting of a Dressed-up Salai in the Alos Foundation.