Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture

Three antique sculptures, the Hanging Marsyas, the Farnese Bull, and the Laocoön, display intense expressions of suffering and pain. Drawing on ancient sources and modern research on embodied simulation and mirror neurons, the article discusses the connection between motion and emotion and the scul...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bente Kiilerich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Oslo Library 2023-12-01
Series:Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uio.no/acta/article/view/10488
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Summary:Three antique sculptures, the Hanging Marsyas, the Farnese Bull, and the Laocoön, display intense expressions of suffering and pain. Drawing on ancient sources and modern research on embodied simulation and mirror neurons, the article discusses the connection between motion and emotion and the sculptures’ impact on emotional reaction and empathic viewer response. Did these works evoke strong feelings, or did they merely incur a light thrill? A concept of interest is phrike (tremor, shivering), an emotion associated with automatic responses to sudden stimuli.
ISSN:0065-0900
2611-3686