Abstract

The artists' movement illustrates the artistic questions and options that appeared in the first half of the 19th century in France concerning the perspective and representation of the human body. The modernity of this period, which is characterised by medical progress and industrial inventions, affects the artistic tradition which, until Théodore Géricault, was determined by the unity of the body. Bodily unity influenced classical and neo-classical painters. In the artistic, scientific and sporting fields, two almost incongruous appearances were constrained in similar ways: the body as unit and fragment. The following options only throw up the most general questions: the development of a science impatient to dominate time, even by postponing death, the discovery of ethics tied to new knowledge and finally the historic coherence of thought flow in various fields, but focussed on the body. Verf.-Referat