Department of Art History
Subject: Representations of dirt, cleanliness and male hygiene in the 19th century French Art.
Supervisor: Prof. Gal Ventura.
Abstract: During the nineteenth century Paris has undergone significant changes in the field of public and personal hygiene. The "hygienization" of Paris was led by scientific discoveries but also by political, educational, economic and ideological processes that affected the collective and the individual. Medical guides, regulations regarding the preservation of private and public hygiene were published over the century, led to the development of the city's infrastructure, the establishment of health organizations and change the cleaning customs of the residents. These innovations have created a collection of practices that have emphasized the importance of a clean body and a clean environment as a reflection of physical and mental health, moral and cultural values. Practices of cleanliness, which were part of the conceptions of individualism and subjectivity, were linked to conceptions of modernity and were an integral part of the aspiration to establish a new social order.
My research seeks to understand the role of visual culture as part of the discourse of hygiene and the connection between historical, social, scientific-medical, cultural and political changes and visual representations dealing with cleanliness, dirt and male hygiene. Understanding the visual culture as part of the medicalization process of Paris, will allow to show how visual culture has joined the medical discourse and has influenced behavior patterns in society and culture.