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“…I had an irregular heartbeat, life was ebbing out of me, I walked with the fear of falling”. Surprising as it may seem, this is not the onset of a severe illness, but what could be defined as a “side-effect” of art sensitivity described by the French writer Henri-Marie Beyle, better known by his pseudonym Stendhal, in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.
On one of his visits to Italy in 1817, Stendhal experienced a life-changing event while visiting the Santa Croce chapel in Florence. Surrounded by the tombs of renewed scholars, the French writer knelt on a prayer bench, leaned his head back and stared in awe at the breathtaking Volterrano’s fresco of the Sybils. Overwhelmed with emotions, the writer reported his feelings about that moment: “I was already in a kind of ecstasy, by the idea of being in Florence, and the proximity of the great men whose tombs I had just seen. Absorbed in contemplating sublime beauty, I saw it close-up — I touched it, so to speak. I had reached that point of emotion where the heavenly sensations of the fine arts meet passionate feeling.” Stendhal’s words somehow resemble the romantic Sublime, that is, a mixture of fear and attraction experienced in front of intense natural phenomena. The common point is the ecstatic feeling overwhelming the viewer when looking at something of immense grandeur.
It was only in 1989 that the Stendhal Syndrome was described by the Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini. Her work was based on 106 cases of foreign patients seen at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence, all of them exhibited clinical symptoms that were consistent with the French writer’s description. Thus, Dr. Margherini coined the definition “Stendhal Syndrome” in honor of the writer. The symptomatology of this condition included: dizziness, heart palpitations, hallucinations, loss of consciousness, disorientation, depersonalization, and profound exhaustion. The manifestation of symptoms was sudden, and their duration spanned from three to eight days. In addition to this, worse symptoms were experienced by patients whose visits involved several trips in a brief period. The precipitating factors were identified as “an impressionable personality, the stress of travel and the encounter with a city like Florence haunted by ghosts of the great, death and the perspective of history.”
Based on the collected data, Magherini proposed three different clinical presentations of the syndrome:
- 66% of the patients exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms
- 29% of patients manifested severe mood disorders
- 5% of the patients presented panic attacks and dysautonomia symptoms, i.e. the disruption of autonomic body processes, such as cardiovascular complaints.
The Italian psychiatrist deepened her research on the effect of artworks on the psyche of visitors and identified another clinical variation of the condition. The study was about Michelangelo’s sculpture of the biblical hero David, housed in the Galleria dell ’Accademia, and it was carried out between 2004 and 2005. Visitors from different countries reported deep feelings of sexual pleasure, aesthetic pleasantness and even profound envy due to the physical perfection of the statue. All that resulted in a state of bewilderment, thus Magherini defined this condition as “David’s Syndrome” and described the sculpture as “a fusion of libido and art”.
So, which are the key factors of Stendhal Syndrome? According to Magherini’s research, the manifestation of this condition is caused by the combination of many factors: the psychological impact caused by the encounter with a great masterpiece, one’s personality and sensitivity level, the changes in one’s routine and comfort caused by travelling.
Evidence shows that this syndrome is not only limited to Florence, but also to other art-rich cities considered as reference points for world cultural heritage. A team of psychiatrists in Jerusalem reported a psychotic state, termed as the “Jerusalem Syndrome” consistent with the Stendhal’s one. At the core of their observations there was the crucial role of the city for the three world’s most-followed religions and the deep connection between religion, art and emotional involvement. Another similar manifestation of symptoms was experienced by foreign tourists visiting Paris, and it was described as the “Paris Syndrome” by the Japanese psychiatrist Hiroaki Ota.
How is Stendhal Syndrome considered by the scientific world?
Since there is insufficient scientific and psychological evidence, Stendhal Syndrome is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Yet, it is a very interesting phenomenon highlighting the deep bond between psychology and art. Indeed, at the beginning of the 21st century neuroaesthetics emerged as the field investigating the biological bases of aesthetic experiences. Moreover, recent findings showed that specific regions of the brain concerned with introspection, social cognition, emotional processing, and memory are activated when contemplating art.
In conclusion, although it is not officially regarded as a clinical condition, the fascinating story of Stendhal Syndrome provides an interesting insight into the link between psychology, emotion and art. It all started with the unexpected experience of a French writer visiting the cultural heritage of Florence, continuing through the research of an Italian psychiatrist and stimulating the observation of consistent phenomena in other countries. What we can learn from this story is that art has a central role in global culture, and it exerts an emotional and psychological impact on people. As Stendhal said about his feelings elicited by the beauty of Santa Croce chapel: “Everything spoke so vividly to my soul!”
By Sofia Nelam Singh
Bibliography
Bamforth I. (2010). Stendhal’s Syndrome. The British Journal of General Practice, 60(581), 945–946. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp10X544780
https://doi.org/10.1590/0004-282X20170189
M. Arias (2019) Neurology of ecstatic religious and similar experiences: ecstatic, orgasmic, and musicogenic seizures. Stendhal syndrome and autoscopic phenomena https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2173580818300634
A.P.E. 
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