The Olympic Games at the Museum
6 artworks from 6 artists across 6 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.
Celebrate the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics with these works across the collection inspired by sport and competition.
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Ballplayer Panel
Maya
Gallery 136, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
In Central America, the best-known ancient sculptors are the Maya, who decorated their sacred buildings with finely carved stone reliefs. This fragmentary ball-court panel from the late eighth century shows two men, dressed in elaborate costumes, engaged in a ritual ball game. Surrounding the figures, and clearly set off from them, are fragments of hieroglyphs by which the Maya identified the players and the date on which the game occurred."While the rules of the ball game these athletes are playing are not fully known, the general aim was to keep a solid ball from touching the ground by deflecting it off the body. Games were aggressive and could lead to the sacrifice of the loser."
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Hercules and Lichas
Unknown Italian
Gallery 205, second level, Arts of Europe: Design Galleries
Both this bronze and its companion represent legendary struggles related to Hecules’s labors, a frequent source of inspiration for Renaissance and later artists. The figures' virtuoso displays of movement, which seem to transform violent struggle into ballet, reflect the sculptor’s intense preoccupation with the human form."Wrestling was one of the earliest additions to the slate of events at the ancient Olympics. In that era, Greek athletes fought covered in oil and were only eliminated when they admitted defeat."
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Two Putti Supporting a Torch
Gallery 208, second level, Arts of Europe: Painting and Sculpture Galleries
In this terracotta sculpture, a pouting putto and his companion flank an elaborate candelabra with a lit torch. The surfaces of the baby bodies and architectural elements retain the marks of the sculptor’s tools, an indication that this work is not a finished product. Artists often used terracotta, a type of reddish-brown ceramic, for models that then served as guides for their assistants to begin carving the final version."The flame depicted here is reminiscent of the Olympic torch, which is lit in Olympia, Greece, before the start of each Olympic Games. This year, it was lit in April and has been carried by 10,000 people on its way to the Opening Ceremonies in Paris."
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The Races at Longchamp
Édouard Manet
Gallery 225, second level, Arts of Europe: Painting and Sculpture Galleries
Édouard Manet composed this scene of a racetrack so that the throng of horses and jockeys thunders straight toward the viewer. In contrast to traditional sporting artists, who always showed races from the side with the horses in profile, Manet achieved a sense of expansive space with this thrilling perspective. The painting records the last moments of the race as the horses rush past the finish line, indicated by the pole with a circular top."Equestrian—which currently includes jumping, dressage, and eventing, but not head-to-head racing as in this Manet painting—is one of the few Olympic sports where men and women directly compete with each other."
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Boxer
Richmond Barthé
Gallery 161, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
Barthé modeled Boxer from memory, inspired by the famed Cuban featherweight Eligio Sardiñas Montalvo, better known as “Kid Chocolate”—who, Barthé said, “moved like a ballet dancer.” Barthé, a Black sculptor who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, frequently explored the expressive potential of the body’s form, pose, and movement. Here, the artist conveyed the boxer’s immense strength and agility with lyricism and grace."Boxing made its first appearance at the 1904 games as a men's event, but it wasn't until 2012 that it was added to the women's program. Barthé's depiction of a successful Cuban boxer is apt, as Cuba has dominated in Olympic boxing in recent decades."
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Champs de Mars: The Red Tower
Robert Delaunay
Gallery 391, third level, Modern Galleries
Delaunay made a series of Eiffel Tower paintings, of which the Art Institute’s is the best known. The artist infused the image with the dynamism of modern life by using multiple viewpoints, rhythmic fragmentation, and strong color contrasts. Delaunay accented the structure’s height by framing it with tall buildings and placing shorter buildings at its base. The top of the tower, augmented by winglike clouds and patches of sky, seems to soar."At this year's Games in Paris, each of the more than 5,000 Olympic medals awarded to athletes will be embedded with scraps of iron from the original construction of the Eiffel Tower, pictured here in Delaunay's painting."
