The dynamics of looking at Abraham’s Sacrifice through the language of contemporary BDSM, which we have accomplished, conforms more to the former—“looking queerly.” The latter, “queerly-looking,” refers to how the male nude body was articulated by Maes, in a sexually provocative way. Both are important elements in visual “queering” endeavours, as the spectator engages in the queer reading through the visual details of the painting.
The accompanying essay has focused on a way of reading Maes’s artwork with a queer edge play lens, and this video will track the developments of Isaac’s figure, from sketches to painting, to see how Maes’s stylistic changes heightened the eroticization of Isaac in the form of the male nude.
