Contenu du sommaire : Le corps dénudé

The western nudity codes are founded on biblic references (the genitals are not to see: Adam & Eva, Noe & Canaan). But the Christians condemn the sin, not the body created by God at his image. The degrees of public nudity indicate the modest status of the poor, the working man, the « state of nature », the « savage », and the loss of socialisation of the reproved or condemned. In Modern Times, the progress of « moral civilisation » (N. Elias) raises the threshold of public and private nudity. Religious (Christ, martyrred, ascetics) and also profane (the pictorial nude) representations of nude body are numerous in the West. With the Renaissance, artistic standards are revised.

Seeing and experiencing nudity seems to be rare during the prudish19th century: let us try to explore some opportunities. At first, nudes invade public space through neoclassic and academic art, to the detriment of reality; the social conventions also allow women to unveil some parts of their body, but only in specific cases; and yet we don't know very much about nudity in private spaces or practices, as sexuality or self washing. Nudity could rather be experienced in border places, as brothels, or in new somatic culture fabrics, as beaches, barracks or gymnasium; it is also broadcasted by the new medical culture.

Saint Francis conversion ends up on the famous scene of his total denudation at the Assisi episcopal court, as a symbol of his renouncement to paternal inheritage. In the first decades of Franciscan history, the denudation act was perceived as a central event, as confirmed in written or illustrated 13th century' legends of St. Francis nudity. We will try here to understand this influence on Franciscan memory with two simultaneous approaches of the scene: the identitarian stakes approach concerning order (evangelical poverty) and the anthropological angle of the public and intentional strip off, demonstrated here as a wonderful infringement, founder of a new life and truth system.

The XVIIIth century popularized a bloody and violent view of the Inquisition courts. However, torture was actually a means of pressure belonging to a precise legal procedure. It was used both by secular and ecclesiastical justice and aimed at obtaining a confession -the ultimate piece of evidence- through psychological and physical ways.  The inquisitors controlled the use of torture while leaving secular justice with the unpleasant task of shedding blood. The defendants were « stripped of their clothes », and exhibited in the torture chamber, but their decency was eventually respected by letting them wear a hose. Women's decency especially restricted the use of torture. The mere threat of being stripped often made it possible to obtain a confession without any other form of violence.

In middle of so many naked characters in figurative arts since the Renaissance, Truth is one of very few whose nakedness is not fraught with shame and lust. An allegory staged in the classical story of Apelles' Calumny, it also served as an individual justification for personalities denigrated by public opinion (Botticelli, Federico Zuccari, Marie de Médicis, Richelieu, Anne d'Autriche, Pope Alexander VII Chigi, Gian Lorenzo Bernini). After the second half of the 17th century on, Truth finds itself depicted in company with Righteousness and others virtues belonging to the exercise of Justice, as for example in Rennes or in Lyons. During the 18th century, Truth takes on the appearance of Desillusion, as end of a spiritual process (Haendel, Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Queirolo), meanwhile around 1900, it becomes a rather provocative image embodying the authenticity of art (Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Hodler).

For the historian, the nudity of the Opera dancers under the July Monarchy is never perceived nor counted by the dancers themselves but through a male point of view: either theorists of the romantic inspired ballet-mime show or Opera audience. The analysis of normative sources and ballet critics give us information about cultural and social stakes linked with feminine bodies exhibition on stage.  It also opens on a thorough study of the audience's emotions.

We will analyse here the different ways how nudity was associated with a back-to-nature attitude and the ensued practices. At the end of the 19th century, naturist doctors advise nudity for the hygenic and therapeutic benefits from the air and sun exposure. Nevertheless, the modesty codes dissuade the french naturists from an integral and collective nudity. After World War II, some naturist militants work on democratizing the air and sun treatment. Gradually, they create a leisure naturism; the term will be associated with an outdoor activity, practiced nude. If this denudation remains partial for some of them, others will advocate integral nudity that will lead to nudism.

In France, during the period between the two world wars, a new trend of body exposure became more prevelant on the beaches, which manifested itself in violence, outraged petitions and resulted in municipal regulations. These beach conflicts, in their different ways, raised issues concerning human attitudes. To understand what provoked the conflicts helped one not only to focus on the moral aspect of the problem, but also to judge why people had become intolerant of these public spaces. Taking these issues seriously and looking at how they could be resolved was also a way of understanding how peace could be established on the beaches without surprising anyone, thereby allowing the co-existence of different attitudes and behaviors.