Paris, France — While the fabulous fencing competitions are taking place beneath the spectacular glass cupola of the Grand Palais in Paris, on the other side of the Seine river you can immerse yourself into the art of duelling at the Musée de l’Armée, France’s national military museum housed in the Invalides with its glowing glass dome. The Hôtel national des Invalides is presenting an exhibition entitled Duels, the Art of Fighting which explores the history of this ancient activity whose origins can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and which continues to live on into the present. From East to West, from reality (like Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr) to fiction (The Three Musketeers), the duel has been used throughout history by men (and sometimes women) to resolve a dispute, seek redress, or for the sake of honor. Two adversaries met in single combat that was staged according to very precise rules with the duel being a form of scheduled, ritualized, even choreographed and legitimised violence. It complies with a protocol and depending upon the era and the country has been more or less tolerated.

The exhibition explores the main principles and developments of duelling through over 200 objects, documents and works of art with the vast majority emanating from the museum’s own collections. Staged to coincide with the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, notably whilst fencing events are taking place at the Grand Palais, the Duels. The Art of Fighting exhibition allows the origins of this Olympic discipline to be retraced: although duellists no longer fight each other to death, they observe rules based on various forms of duels that the Musée de l’Armée is keen to analyse. Swords, rapiers, pistols, sabres, navaja blades ( a type of folding knife), daggers and even tennis racquets are on display, in a theatrical setting that plunges visitors into the world of the duel. 

The duel’s greatest historical figures are portrayed throughout the journey through the show: Mademoiselle de Maupin, the 17th century French actress and duellist, piercing the Duke de Luynes’s shoulder with her sword before taking him as a lover; the historic Japanese swordsmen Musashi and Kojiro fight on the island of Ganryu; the knight Jean de Carrouges confronting Jacques le Gris in 1386, in what is considered to be the last trial by combat in France; and also the Baron de Jarnac and François de Vivonne, Lord of La Châtaigneraie, fighting a duel in front of King Henry II and the court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye castle in 1547. 

The protagonists of colorful stories, depicted in the exhibition, illustrate how, over the centuries, reality and fiction (novels, films, etc.) have influenced each other and helped to root the “spectacle” of the duel within popular culture and the collective imagination. This project has received the Cultural Olympiad label by the Paris 2024 organization. It is running until August 18th. Special to The Gourmet Gazette. Musée de l’Armée, Hôtel national des Invalides,129, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris, France. https://www.musee-armee.fr/en/home.html