You've heard the old saw about having to suffer for your art...
Well, this old cliché may be truer than not, if some recent research
is correct. According to a fascinating article I found on HealthDay
News not long ago, some of the world's greatest and most recognizable
works of art may owe their very existence to the pain of disease,
toxins, or addiction.
According to the piece, a California pathologist named Paul Wolfe has
found evidence of pain and agony caused by a variety of human
conditions abundant in classic art. For example, he maintains that
renaissance artist Rafael's portrait of a seated, pained-looking
Michelangelo reveals swelling in the artist's right knee. This synchs
with many experts' belief that the great artist - and others of his
time - suffered from a condition called saturnine gout, a common
inflammatory disease caused by lead ingestion. During the renaissance,
wine was contained in vessels that leached lead into the drink,
rendering it poisonous!
In another possible example of pain manifesting in art, the California
researcher holds that evidence of Syphilis infection appears in
renaissance art, most specifically in the masterwork of the Italian
sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The scientist claims that Cellini's famous
(and fearsome) bronze sculpture of Greek hero Perseus holding the
still-bleeding, snake-haired head of a slain Medusa smacks of the
megalomania that often accompanies the STD - a mental illness called
paresis. Cellini did indeed have the disease.
And of course, no discussion of tortured artists would be complete
without a mention of 19th century master Vincent Van Gogh. It's well
documented that this brilliant one-eared Dutch painter wrestled with
epilepsy, mental illness, and an addiction to hallucinogenic absinthe
(one need not be an art scholar to see the drug's influence in that
man's work)...
But according to Wolf, Van Gogh's well-known fondness of the color
yellow may have been a result of either his medical state or his
addiction - or perhaps both. One of the most common treatments for
epilepsy during the late 19th century was a plant-based drug called
digitalis. A major side effect of digitalis is a yellowish tinge to
the eyesight. Ironically, this same colored vision is noted as a side
effect of the active ingredient in absinthe, which Van Gogh
notoriously guzzled to kill the pain in his mind and body.
Take a close look at The Starry Night sometime and you'll see not
white stars, but whirling yellow ones. Amazing what influences the
immortal classics, isn't it? Keep reading...
