Sport and the Renaissance: a free exhibition on ancient sports at the Musée de la Renaissance

To coincide with the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Château d'Ecouen - musée de la Renaissance is turning its attention to 16th-century sports and physical activities. The museum tells us about these ancient pastimes in a free exhibition presented from July 1 to November 5, 2024.

Ancient or modern, revisited or unchanged, come and discover these activities with the Sport and Renaissance exhibition. A total of 11 disciplines are presented on informative panels, featuring texts, drawings, engravings, poems... Discover dance, fencing, horse riding, archery, harquebus shooting, soule, calcio, swimming, batelier, pall-mall, acrobatics, pugilism, wrestling, physical education and jeu de paume.

The exhibition is set up throughout the château: it takes the form of an itinerary punctuated by 11 panels, each dedicated to a specific sport.

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Many of these sports are known and still practiced today, even if the gestures and rules may differ. Dancing, fencing and wrestling have survived the centuries. But what about soule, calcio or pall-mall? Who could do acrobatics, and what form did physical education take?

This exhibition explains in detail the role of these"exercise games", which were very popular during the Renaissance. Nobles and ordinary workers alike took part in sports on a regular basis, whether to prepare for war or just for fun between work obligations. Physical activity was even an important part of theeducation of society's young elites.

Renaissance models were based on ancient Greek and Roman societies: the sports and competitions of yesteryear were revived and analyzed by scholars. Exercise games became part of everyday life, and were regularly referenced inart and literature, notably by Ronsard, Rabelais and Montaigne.

Discover the sports of yesteryear with this free exhibition from the Musée national de la Renaissance.