The Theatre of the Athletic Nude: The teaching and study of anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1873-1940

Abstract

Physicians Paul Richer, Henry Meige and Mathias Duval were colleagues of French neurologist, J.-M. Charcot. In 1873-1940 they consolidated within their teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts a model of aesthetics based on a dynamic construction of the human body in movement. The theatrical spectatorship of the athletic nude was marshalled in the service of medicine, aesthetics, and social and racial health. Associated with the new sciences of physiology and neurology, Richer, Meige and Duval restored to academic art its modernity by marrying anatomical dissection with those new medical disciplines whose focus was the body in action. This revived the artist’s “maternal language” of the performing body, found at the ancient Greek Olympics or amongst the strongmen of the fairground. This produced a distinctly modern, neo-Classical aesthetic; a progressive, realist iconography of the masculine athletic subject in performance. The modern sports stadium acted as a theatrical locus for the teaching and promulgation of healthy, embodied, Republican aesthetics.