Stendhal Syndrome

Have you ever stood before a piece of art and been completely overwhelmed with emotion? Director Rebecca Dreyfus has. It was because of one such experience after viewing Vermeer's The Concert that she was moved to make Stolen. The film recounts the story of the thirteen works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston back in 1990. The Concert was among the thirteen and to this day none of them have been recovered.

 

But did you know that there is actually a term for such extreme emotional reactions to art? It's called Stendhal Syndrome. It's a psychosomatic condition that causes rapid heart beat, dizziness and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to beautiful art. It is named after the 19th century French author Stendhal who wrote a detailed account of experiencing this phenomenon during a visit to Italy back in 1817:

"I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty... I reached a point where one encounters celestial sensations... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling."

Reportedly in Florence, which we know as the cradle of Renaissance art, foreign patients have been rushed to Santa Maria Nuova Hospital with such acute mental imbalances at least once a month! Isn't this insane? I don't know if I believe it.

"...It is said that more than half the patients are tourists from European countries. Italians, on the other hand, seem to be immune to the condition, along with the Japanese, who are apparently so organized in their sight-seeing that they rarely have time for emotional attacks."

Come to think of it, I think I have experienced Stendhal's syndrome while in Italy!

www.stolenthefilm.com