I was just reading some random click-baity post about a topic I do not remember when something in the text caught my eye: stendhal syndrome. Specifically, I had to stop immediately and look up the syndrome when I read that it’s what they call a particularly strong response to art, in this case, crying.
Have I ever cried over beautiful art? I have definitely had extremely strong responses to art(s) that have launched me head-first into a frenzied creative spell. It’s a kind of amazing experience… but, crying? That I don’t remember. Anger, yes. I felt angry after a particularly powerful performance, once. It wasn’t because the performance angered me due to content or anything, it was because I was jealous-angry. I didn’t feel as creative. I didn’t think I had the right to call myself an artist. I didn’t think I would ever think of a way to create something so hypnotic and powerful to so many people. It was a beautiful night, amazing performance piece, and I still have a couple paintings I promptly went home to paint afterward in a hurried attempt to steal and express some of the energy of their performance vision, but it didn’t work. Those paintings are crap. Oh well.
Anyway, here’s a Psychology Today piece on the syndrome. Have you ever felt this kind of reaction to a work of art?
The Porch 