Art Attack!

In 1817, a young French writer, Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842), better known by his pen name, Stendhal, went to see art in Florence, and lost his shit.

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 the 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. —Stendhal, Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio

The medical community, long accustomed to treating visitors with similar symptoms, called it Stendhal’s Syndrome.

After a year of pandemic isolation in our house looking over Florence, I had only days left before our return to Scotland to see centuries of the painting, sculpture, architecture, and other masterpieces that shaped and defined Western art. But unlike the multiple Covid-19 vaccines available, there was nothing to protect me from Stendhal’s Syndrome.

Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Libertà

Madonna dell’Impannata by Raphael

Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished masterpiece

Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

Madonna with Child by Fra Filippo Lippi

Neptune Fountain Piazza della Signoria

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

David by Michelangelo

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Tribuna of the Uffizi, the octagonal room at the heart of the Medici’s incredible art collection. At center is the 1st century BCE Greek statue of Aphrodite (known as Venus de Medici).

The birth of Venus by Botticelli

Doni Tondo by Michelangelo

Madonna of the Magnificat by Sandro Botticelli

Madonna della Seggiola by Raphael

How did I keep from going all Stendhal? Luckily, I was able to apply the right medication, Florence style:

Rx for Florence Fever Cure: pizza, iced coffee, and gelato. Repeat as needed. 

Arrivederci firenza!