Ever had Stendhal syndrome?

[johnastovall]

Stendhal syndrome or Stendhal's syndrome is a psychosomatic
illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion
and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art,
usually when the art is particularly 'beautiful' or a
large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be
used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice
in otherr circumstances, e.g. when confronted
with immense beauty in the natural world.

Interesting thing, I have had it a few times.
There was a room full of Monet's at the National Gallery in Washington
that upon entering I had to just sit down as I felt physically
overwhelmed by their beauty.

It's different than Maslow's 'Oceanic' as it is more physical.

Any other's out there who have had Stendhal's syndrome?

[carrbowl]

Never heard of it...since I'm on the religious side...I get it, but because of the things we have been given...unfortunatley, no one has every even remotely been close after looking at my "art"!!!

[georgep6506]

I don't think I have had this happen. But, as a tangent, last year after a week long photographic journey through the Sierra Nevada's my personality changed drastically. I came back and have been much calmer since the trip. I never would have believed that it was possible, but my camera/art has actually changed me. Talking about equiment making the man...

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Yep, twice that I can remember.

First time was when I was young and walked into the Guggenheim for the first time and the second and most pronounced was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC where I saw Da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci.

_/oe

[kenw]

..yeah, when I met my then-future-wife......i still get that feeling, too.



(Please, someone send her a link to this.)

[carrbowl]

Originally Posted by kenw

..yeah, when I met my then-future-wife......i still get that feeling, too.



(Please, someone send her a link to this.)

suck up!!!

[kenw]

yeah, renae... I ain't as stupid as i look......


seriously, i think the syndrome probably manifests itself in many of us as all of the symptoms are common in periods of excitement or extreme anticipation and can generally be related to rapid changes in blood pressure.

[carrbowl]

at least your still tryin!!!

[SCone]

Everytime I visit the Harley shop

[Duffy Pratt]

Never had anything quite like it myself, and the closest I've come is probably listening to music. Based on the name, I'm assuming that Stendhal first described it as happening to one of his characters, because nobody ever got it from reading one of his books.

Duffy

[fstops]

had a few myself- i can still remember the first time, it was rodin's "balzac" took my breath away

[kenw]

"...because nobody ever got it from reading one of his books."

ouch!

[110240]

good question!!!

lol, surfers call it "utopian freakout" you get it when you live in tropical paradise for too long. because literally your brain cannot cope with too much of paradise. Ive seen it eat up, enjoyed getting it, but not having it.

I guess the closest I ever got to being starstruck by art was wondering around the National Gallery, V and A and Tate galleries in London. As a kid, the images were totally overwhelming, cant remember the piece but I stood mesmerised by one of Caravaggios works for about 5 minutes (which in adult time is about 3 days).

Checking the HCB exhibition in the Tate, and another by the photographer Don McCullin of images from India (awesome elephants!), those left me starstruck too.

These days with the amount of hugely oversaturated oversharpened images floating around its becoming increasingly difficult to be truly mesmerised as our tolerances to highly powered images goes up and up. Heaps of photographers readily produce images every day that twenty years ago would have been technically outstanding. Still though, few people have a very good eye for photography.

Good commercial work still captivates me.

[ngoduyviet]

Does that apply to when you see a room full of beautiful camera gear?

Haven't had that happened to me yet, guess I'm not easily impressed, except for when it comes to camera or computer gadgets.