[Movement and tranquility in 19th century Aesthetics]

The nineteenth century sees the rise of the bourgeoisie to social and political power. The values of this class increased the attention paid to certain branches of the medical sciences, such as for example hygiene. A set of rules and methods to achieve better health and, at the same time, to come closer to the perfect image of man described by writers of aesthetics, often taking classical Greece as a point of reference, are believed to be found in these branches. In these strategies physical exercise plays a role which is positively valued as much by hygienists as by philosophers, some of whose works are studied in this article.