Search

In many ways, Paul Cézanne was considered an anti-classical painter. However, through some of his works, we can notice the influence of Greek imagery, which was exerted on him when he was a young copyist at the Louvre. In the painting Bathers at Rest (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia), the posture of the lying bather offers a prime example. This posture on the ground, knee erected, arm wound around the head, is well known in Greek art, and mainly used to show a fighter fatally struck during a battle. This stance seems affected and almost absurd for a dying man, intensifying the battle’s drama. But how to explain Hector adopting the same stance in the Priam embassy representations? What is the narrative intent behind this choice of body position outside of a battle scene? Evidence supports that this particular posture, some details of which are reminiscent of the Homeric literature, is a reflection of a school of thought deeply rooted in the Greek imagination.