在藝術史上，Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)被視為寫實主義巨匠和美國現代藝術先驅。他將巴黎藝術學院的人體寫生教育引入費城美術學校體制，並劃時代地描繪美國文學、醫學、運動各領域的卓越人物。Eakins兼容並蓄寫實和古典的美學，然而他堅持裸體寫生和解剖學的教學信念，導致他遭受爭議而放棄教職。本研究聚焦於Eakins的人體再現作品，因為這是他創作的核心，橫跨繪畫、素描、攝影、雕塑等媒介，刻畫身體的堅韌和脆弱、動勢和靜止等百態。我將探討作品中的實證觀察，作品觸發的視覺愉悅和痛苦，並探究其如何融合體現了Eakins現代生活經驗和古典文化涵養。本計畫探討的重點有：寫實主義的多元脈絡、人體繪畫與攝影的相互關聯、身體經驗與可見性的問題、古典與現代的身體技藝、鍍金時代的性別文化。本研究的學術價值是採取跨文化和跨媒材的視野，重新檢視Eakins創造的身體意象和涵義，並且結合身體哲學論述，闡釋其再現肉身物質性的藝術遺澤。 ;In art historical study, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) is regarded as a realist master and a pioneer in American modern art. He is noted for introducing the system of life model painting from École des Beaux-Arts in Paris to the art academy in Philadelphia, and depicting the outstanding figures in the fields of medicine, literature, and sport in America for the first time. Eakins has been devoted to integrating the realist and classical aesthetics, but his insistence on the curriculum of nude figure drawing and anatomy caused heated controversy and eventually his forced resignation from the academy. This project focuses on Eakins’s representations of the human body, as his creative production, encompassing the media of painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture, has centered on the body. In a variety of manners, his oeuvre evokes the strength and fragility of the body, and delineates the locomotion and stillness of the body. I will discuss Eakins’s positivist observation of the human body and the visual pleasure and pain induced from his work. I will consider the ways Eakins blended his life experiences in the modern society and his long-held interest in classical learning. I will address the following main issues: the plural contexts of realism, the interconnections between painting and photography of the human body, the corporeal experiences and the problem of visibility, the classical and modern bodily techne, and the gendered culture of the Gilded Age. The scholarly significance of this project lies in the cross-cultural and intermedia approach to reexamine Eakins’s iconography of the body. It aims to elucidate his artistic legacy of representing the corporeal materiality in the light of philosophical discourse on the body.
