In Search of Olympia: Imaging the Ancient Games in Late Eighteenth-Century Art

Richard Chandler’s rediscovery of Olympia in 1766 was a turning point in Olympic history. Yet when Chandler reported this on his return to England it was clear that the material evidence he had uncovered was negligible. Nonetheless, this very absence of evidence provided a golden opportunity for two artists on either side of the English Channel to produce grand scale paintings visualising this absence. This article examines in detail, two major artworks by James Barry and Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, produced in the wake of Chandler’s rediscovery. Through the deployment of art historical methods in the detailed reading of the works themselves, and contextualisation of them within a broader socio-political and cultural history, this article foregrounds the importance of visual culture as evidence for Olympic historians whilst also exposing how such engagements with that history could raise vital questions not only about the past, but simultaneously about contemporary society and culture.