Fr : version française / En: english version

.Bathing

The bath in mythology

The bath in mythology

Susanna and the Elders

Susanna and the Elders

The bath in the Latin world

The bath in the Latin world

Bathing in the Middle Ages

Bathing in the Middle Ages

The "dry wash"

The "dry wash"

Louis XIV's bathtub

Louis XIV's bathtub

The bath's return to favor

The bath's return to favor

Healthy body, healthy mind

Healthy body, healthy mind

The principles of hygiene

The principles of hygiene

The "bathing hit"

The "bathing hit"

Bathing is a pleasure

Bathing is a pleasure

Medieval steam rooms

Medieval steam rooms

The Garden of Delights

The Garden of Delights

Cover this breast which I cannot behold

Cover this breast which I cannot behold

Pleasure hidden beneath morality

Pleasure hidden beneath morality

The relaxation of moral standards

The relaxation of moral standards

The nude in the bath becomes realistic

The nude in the bath becomes realistic

The 20th century: La Dolce Vita

The 20th century: La Dolce Vita

The suicide of Seneca or the fatal bath

The suicide of Seneca or the fatal bath

The Assassination of Marat

The Assassination of Marat

"Enter now, Jean Moulin!"

"Enter now, Jean Moulin!"

The Masters of Suspense

The Masters of Suspense

The bath in mythology

The bath occupies an important place in mythology and in the Bible: life-giving water plays either a beneficial purifying role or is a means of making the land fertile. Rivers, either real or imaginary (the Styx and its tributaries, the Ganges, the Paktolos, the Nile and so on), are brimming with mythical creatures or are the setting for fundamental myths such as the Naiads, the Bath of Diana, the birth of Isis or Aphrodite, the wealth of Croesus, or the grotto of Lourdes.

The Fountain of Youth

The origin of the myth of a fountain whose waters have the power to stem or even reverse the ageing process is uncertain: it could be biblical, Celtic, Germanic, or Middle Eastern.

But those who quested after it did not meet with good fortune: Alexander the Great is said to have died from not having found it, while Juan Ponce de León, the conquistador and contemporary of Christopher Columbus, undertook two expeditions to the West Indies in search of it. In 1513, he discovered Florida without realizing it, but eventually died as a result of an injury on his second attempt.

Luckily, Donald Duck fared better...
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ml8RGEwCk]

The three great monotheistic religions moreover have their own bathing-related rituals: Christian baptism, the Jewish mikvah and the Muslim ablutions.

The Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth is possibly a late work painted around 1546. Cranach, who was one of the chief creators of Protestant iconography, here abandons religious themes and, using the excuse of a mythological subject, paints a probably humorous, slightly moralistic and delightfully ironic, playful work. The fountain appears to rejuvenate only the women brought on horseback, by cart or wheelbarrow, or carried on someone's back by the people. On the other side however, it is the nobles who receive the far-from-shy young virgins as they emerge from the fountain.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Born in Kronach near Coburg in 1472, Lucas Muller (known as Cranach), along with Dürer and Altdorfer, was one of the greatest artists of the German Renaissance. Appointed court painter to the Electors of Saxony at Wittenberg in 1505, he was elected burgomaster of that city in 1537 and owned a series of businesses: a wine shop, an apothecary, a bookshop and stationer and a printing workshop. A friend of Luther and a supporter of the Protestant cause, he was imprisoned with his prince, John Frederick the Magnanimous, after the latter was defeated by the Catholic armies of Charles V in 1548. He died in Weimar in 1553, a year after his release.

© Blauel/Gnamm - ARTOTHEK