Fainting in classical art.
Publisher Summary Fainting (syncope) is a temporary loss of consciousness and posture. Fainting is far commoner than epilepsy, but in art, epileptic seizures are more commonly depicted than fainting. Syncope typically happens in particular situations such as hot crowded environments, including restaurants or aeroplanes, in the doctor's surgery, or in the bathroom at night; specific triggers include prolonged standing, emotional trauma, and pain. Emotional turmoil, particularly grief, usually causes the syncope shown in art; the common causes of syncope in real life, such as prolonged standing and being in hot environments, are rarely shown. Moreover, women in art are much more likely to faint than men, and typically are young, beautiful, and reacting to grief; in real life, the sex ratio only slightly favors women. When men are shown to faint in art, it is often through serious, even life-threatening causes such as severe blood loss or terminal illness. Simple faints in art, particularly in women, often has overtones of a psychogenic component (‘‘swooning’’). Thus, the fainters are often painted with pink skin, eyes closed, and held upright, seemingly without coming to harm.
Epilepsy, Viewed Metaphysically: An Interpretation of the Biblical Story of the Epileptic Boy and of Raphael's Transfiguration
Summary: Raphael's last painting reveals, in the upper half of the picture, Christ's transfiguration on Mount Tabor and, in the lower half, the young boy's epileptic seizure at the foot of the mountain in the presence of the other disciples. Raphael depicts both events, which are told in succession in the Gospels, as if they took place at the same time. By synchronizing both scenes Raphael demonstrated a significant correspondence between Christ and the epileptic boy, which reveals the epileptic seizure as a symbolic representation of a transcendent event. This metaphysical aspect of epilepsy depicted by Raphael can also be found in the corresponding biblical passages. In the Gospels, the metamorphosis caused by the epileptic seizure is used as a simile for Christ's transfiguration through suffering, death, and resurrection.
The Case of the Epileptic Boy
The brooding melancholy in the face of Albert Einstein reflected his feeling of being a stranger : ’ I have gone my own way, and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even to my immediate family, with my whole heart ... I have never been able to lose an obstinate sense of detachment.’ This same sense of detachment marks the next subject of biographical study, the Russian philosopher, Nicolai Berdyaev. An exile, like Einstein, though from a different land and forced to flee from a different totalitarian foe, Berdyaev was convinced that our real ’ world is illusory and that he belonged to another. Like Einstein, too, he regarded all hierarchies as somehow ridiculous. ’ All hierarchic order always seemed to me to be only a masquerade ’, he wrote. Dr. Donald Lowrie’s biography is therefore aptly named Rebellious ProPhet. 1 Lowrie was an