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In a Splendid Exhibition, the École Des Beaux- Arts in Paris Is Currently

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In a Splendid Exhibition, the École Des Beaux- Arts in Paris Is Currently Ausstellungsbericht 22.12.2008 Exhibition Review Editor: R. Donandt Exhibition: Figures du corps. Une leçon d'anatomie aux beaux-arts. Paris, École natio- nale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris. 21.10.2008-04.01.2009 Exhibition catalogue: Philippe Comar (ed.): Figures du corps. Une leçon d'anatomie aux beaux-arts. Beaux-arts de Paris les editions, 2008. 509 p., 800 ill. ISBN: 978-2-84056-269- 6. 45,- EUR. Mechthild Fend, University College London In a splendid exhibition, the École des beaux- sixteenth-century displays include the well arts in Paris is currently showing their own known anatomical treatises by Vesalius and anatomical collections enriched by a small Estienne, studies on proportion after Vitruvius number of objects from other French institu- and by Lomazzo and Dürer, as well as écorchés tions. Usually behind the scenes - stored away and muscle studies by Bandinelli or Antonio del in archives and galleries reserved for the train- Pollaiuolo. In the next of the six sections, which ing of art students - the books, prints, draw- are organized more or less in chronological or- ings, photographs, waxmodels or casts are der, the formation of the French art academy up now centre stage in two large exhibition halls until the early nineteenth century is addressed, at Quai Malaquais. With these materials the especially the increasing specialisation of anat- exhibition traces the history of anatomy train- omy training for artists; this development is also ing at the French national art school. The pres- explored in the catalogue essay by Morwena tigious institution was founded in 1648 under Joly. The first anatomy tracts dedicated to art- Louis XIV as Académie royale de peinture et ists are represented among others by François de sculpture and was later, in the course of the Tortebat's "Abrégé d'anatomie accommodé aux French Revolution, renamed École des beaux- arts de peinture et de sculpture" of 1667-68. The arts. Established by court artist Charles Le book is illustrated with skeletons and muscle Brun, the academy was a typical product of figures after Vesalius' "Fabrica" and accompa- absolutism, and intended to remove art pro- nied with (as the title advertises) a very abbre- duction and education from the guilds and put viated text. The textual information is restricted them instead under the control of the State. to the nomenclature of bones and muscles, and Along with this institutionalisation came the a short explanation of their location and func- assumption that art followed a set of authorita- tion, establishing the assumption that an artist tive rules and could be taught accordingly. needs far less textual knowledge about anatomy than a physician. Later treatises also provide Anatomy training was part of the application new images that range from the morbid and of such scrutiny in the approach to the human fantastic engravings of Jacques Gamelin to the body. Following the model of earlier Italian functional neoclassicist illustrations of Jean- academies, students at the Académie royale Galbert Salvage. The army surgeon provided were guided to draw from anatomical prints, both an écorché of the Borghese Gladiator and from skeletons and écorchés, before finally an anatomical treatise, which illustrates the encountering the life model. Moreover, stu- bones and muscles of the famous ancient statue. dents would occasionally engage with human In addition to the anatomical treatise and the and animal corpses, or at least assist anatomi- écorché, the exhibition assembles a whole set of cal dissections. This earlier Italian tradition of objects resulting from this project. artistic anatomy is summarily dealt with in Andrea Carlino's catalogue essay and pre- The title of the third section is "La prose des sented in the first section of the exhibition formes" and refers to the tendency towards sci- labelled "L'héritage de la Renaissance". The entific objectivity in medical illustrations of the - 1 - Ausstellungsbericht 22.12.2008 Exhibition Review Editor: R. Donandt nineteenth century. Many atlases, using the other sections, it is the variety of the objects new printing technique of lithography starting within a theme that make the exhibition so ex- in the 1820s, manifest a prosaic scrutiny of the ceptional and enables it to demonstrate vividly human body. But they are not totally devoid of the complexities of the construction of the im- anecdotal detail. Frequently the pins and age of the human body. To take measurement as hooks used by the draughtsman to hold the an example, there are various nineteenth cen- body open are part of the representation, as are tury treatises on proportion alongside a table faces and period hairstyles that evoke the indi- with the registration of the measurements of viduals used in the dissection. It is thus not individuals recorded by hand, as well as the quite justified to leave it to "romantic artists", actual instrument, an x-shaped pincer, used by in particular Géricault, to explore the disturb- Paul Richer and others for such measurements. ing facets of anatomy. At times it is precisely Paul Richer's ex libris represents a male nude, the sobriety of the medical gaze that conjures which is placed on a step at a right-angle pose up the macabre aspects of anatomy. Among and is shown measuring a statue. The model for the most stunning objects on display is Jules this nude is itself by the anatomy professor and Talrich's coloured plaster model (c. 1870) artist and is on display in the plaster version and showing the neck of a guillotined person in the reproduction from Richer's "Canons de where the cut of the aseptic execution machine proportions moyennes du corps humain" and the medical cross section coincide with (1893). This is almost a mise en abyme that brutal clarity. What unites these images - artis- gives an idea of both the excess and the redun- tic and medical - is an obsession with looking dancy at stake in the construction of the normal that goes beyond any distinction between real- body. ist and romantic styles of representation. Despite such sensitive ordering of materials, the In the second floor, one of three further sec- exhibition is by no means simply didactic. The tions deals with "L'animal et l'homme". It in- smart and subtle exhibition, curated by Philippe cludes animal studies and casts, man animal Comar and designed by Alexis Bertrand, pro- comparisons from Giovanni della Porta to duces an unsettling atmosphere of its own, es- Charles Darwin, and various physiological, pecially via the still life like arrangements of phrenological and anthropological attempts to many objects, in particular casts and wax mod- classify and rank humans according to their els. These evoke allegorical traditions of the internal or external features. These attempts to memento mori, in keeping with many older ana- order the character and expressions of humans tomical illustrations, objects and installations. are also the focus of critical analysis in the One such object, an anonymous autel macabre catalogue essay by Martial Guédron. Focus- that uses embryo skeletons posing as allegories sing on the nineteenth century, the section "La of death and decay, greets visitors as they enter science comme modèle" sets out the relation- the exhibition. At the same time, this macabre ships between scientific and artistic imagery, aspect of anatomy is countered through the use and looks in particular at the measuring of the of modernist display cases, which are pastel in body, as well as the use of the camera and the colour and thus are distanced from the objects photograph as an instrument of observation, presented and from expected clinical whiteness registration and documentation. The final sec- of scientific research. Smartly designed, these tion "La quete du mouvement" is dedicated to large table-like cabinets function both as vitri- the study of movement and the chronophoto- nes for the flat pieces (books, prints etc) and as graphic investigations of human and animal platforms for the larger three-dimensional ob- locomotion by Étienne Jules Marey, and Paul jects. Richer with Albert Londe in Paris as well as Eadweard Muybridge in the US. Here as in the The curator, Philippe Comar, is professor of - 2 - Ausstellungsbericht 22.12.2008 Exhibition Review Editor: R. Donandt morphology at the École des beaux-art. This is and scholarly interest in the topic, and the lim- the post formerly called chair of anatomy and ited accessibility of the archives and collections renamed in the wake of Paul Richer's adoption of the ENSBA (even for specialists) it would be of Goethe's term for the anatomy of exterior desirable if at least parts of this commendable form and thus marks modern artistic anatomy's exhibition could be turned into a permanent focus on the external features of the human public display. body. This renaming accompanied a shift in expertise, and although exceptionally the post has been filled by someone (Richer) with both Notes: an artistic and medical training, those holding it before the twentieth century were anato- [1] Édouard Cuyer and Mathias Duval: Histoire mists, while more recently it has been held by de l'anatomie plastique, les maîtres, les livres, artists. Comar teaches anatomy and writes on les écorchés. Paris, 1898. the history of anatomy and thus returns to the [2] Spectacular bodies: The art and science of tradition of his predecessors, namely Édouard the human body from Leonardo to now. Exhibi- Cuyer and Mathias Duval who published an tion curated by Martin Kemp and Marina early history of artistic anatomy in 1898.[1] Wallace, Hayward Gallery, London 2000; Comar's comprehensive catalogue essay cov- L'empreinte, exhibition curated by George Didi- ers the history of anatomy training at the École Huberman. Paris, Musée national d'art mod- des beaux-arts since the formation of the erne,1997; Carl Goldstein: Teaching Art.
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