New exhibition at the Louvre Museum in Paris

"Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter”. ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’: these values, chosen for the official Olympic motto, underscore the aspiration for all the athletes participating in this global competition. Japan has certainly embodied these golden ideals this year, managing to win 20 gold, 12 silver, and 13 bronze medals and placing third in the Olympic medal rankings—its best performance in history, surpassed only by the Tokyo 2020 home Games. As we celebrate these triumphs, it is only natural to ponder the origins of the Olympics, a competition that reflects humanity's pursuit of harmony between body and spirit, and the quest for athletic excellence.

History takes us back to distant times, when the pursuit of glory was inseparable from the desire for honor and peace, and competition was seen as the highest tribute to the gods. Yet, despite its ancient origins, Olympics are a truly modern creation, born from the efforts of a group of Greek and French intellectuals in the 19th century. France, host of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad this year, seeks to honor this remarkable history with an exhibition titled L'Olympisme - Une invention moderne, un héritage antique, on display at the Richelieu Gallery of the Louvre Museum until 16 September 2024.

Émile Gilliéron. Cover of the Commemorative Album of the Athens 1896 Olympic Games. International Olympic Committee (IOC) © Collections, Olympic Museum, Lausanne."

The exhibition welcomes visitors with the iconic five rings of the Olympic Games flag, designed in 1913 to symbolize 'the five parts of the world now united by the cause of Olympism.' This ideal, as the first room of the exhibition illustrates, traces its origins to 8th century BC Greece, when athletic competitions were first held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia in honor of Zeus, the King of the Gods. These events held deep religious significance and were not unique—similar games were held to honor Apollo with the Pythian Games at Delphi, and Poseidon with the Isthmian Games at Corinth. Due to their sacred nature, imbued with pagan traditions, these ancient competitions were finally banned by the Christianized Roman emperor Theodosius and eventually faded into obscurity. In the 19th century, however, a Franco-Greek alliance of scholars, politicians, and artists (notably, not athletes!) conceived the idea of reviving this ancient tradition with the aim of promoting peace and education in an international landscape increasingly poisoned by turbulent rivalries and tensions among great powers. While history often celebrates Baron Pierre de Coubertin as the principal founder and promoter of the modern Olympic Games, the exhibition also highlights the contributions of several other key figures, whose achievements are explored in the following rooms.

The essence of the Olympic message was brought to life largely through the contributions of two French intellectuals, Émile Gilliéron and Michel Bréal, who were both guardians of the profound legacy ancient Greek knowledge. Gilliéron, a champion of the Beaux-Arts idiom and a painting professor at the court of King George I of Greece, was at the peak of his career when the first Modern Olympic Games took place. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Hellenic art history, he designed the cover of the commemorative album for the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens shown earlier, as well as stamps and postcards. Among these was a sheet of stamps depicting wrestling, which was issued for the 1906 Intercalated Games, iconographically inspired by a calyx krater showing Herakles battling the giant Antaeus.

Figura 1 Euphronios, red-figure krater: Heracles and Antaeus, Athens, ca. 515-510 BC. Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities, Louvre Museum, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (Louvre Museum) / Stéphane Maréchalle.

Figura 2 Émile Gilliéron. Stamp: 2nd commemorative edition for the 1906 Intercalated Games. Engraver, Louis Eugène Mouchon. Printed in England. Museum of Philately and Post. © Museum of Philately and Post, Athens

Although better known as the founder of modern semantic science, Michel Bréal is also credited with “inventing” the marathon race—a sport that did not exist in ancient times. In a letter to Pierre de Coubertin, displayed in the exhibition, Bréal expressed his desire to revive this race with a “saveur antique”. This discipline was in fact inspired by the legendary run of the athlete Pheidippides from Marathon to Athens, a distance of exactly 42 kilometers, to announce the Greek victory over the Persians. To commemorate what has been a part of the Olympics since the first Athenian Games in 1896, the exhibition features a bronze statue titled The Soldier of Marathon and a painting by Luc-Olivier Merson bearing the same name, depicting the soldier collapsing in death from exhaustion just after delivering his proclamation.

Luc-Olivier Merson. Le Soldat de Marathon. 1869. Beaux-Arts de Paris © Beaux-Arts de Paris, dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Athens 1896, Paris 1900, London 1908, Stockholm 1912, Antwerp 1920, Paris 1924... As the Olympic Games evolved into modernity, they increasingly added new elements that were absent in ancient Greek competitions: the inclusion of women, the acknowledgment of second and third places on the podium, the opening ceremony, and the introduction of the Winter Olympics. Yet, the artistic iconography that underpinned the celebration of the Olympic spirit remained deeply rooted in antiquity, particularly in the creation of cups, posters, postcards, trophies, and stamps. Notable examples include the Lambros Cup, awarded to the winner of the first marathon in 1896 and crafted according to Michel Bréal's specifications...

...as well as stamps inspired by renowned works of antiquity, such as the wonderful depiction of Hermes fastening his sandal or the Medici Wrestlers.

Figura 3 Modern plaster cast, after the ancient group known as the Medici Wrestlers. Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities. Louvre Museum, Paris. © 2015 Louvre Museum, distributed by RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski

Figura 4 Émile Gilliéron. Stamp featuring the Medici Wrestlers. Series issued for the 1906 Intercalated Games. Engraver, Louis Eugène Mouchon. Museum of Philately and Post, Athens, Greece

The exhibition concludes in the stunning Marly Courtyard with a statue that blends ancient inspiration with a distinctly modern touch: the Finnish discus thrower, sculpted by Costas Dimitriadis in 1924. Dimitriadis intended this bronze masterpiece to embody the values of competition, physical perfection, and excellence—stars that have long illuminated the firmament of ancient Greece. Similarly, the outstanding performance of Japan's athletic team stands today as a brilliant record of how these ancient ideals continue to resonate in our modern world, proving that the Olympic spirit remains as vigorous as ever.