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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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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author Bente Kiilerich
author_facet Bente Kiilerich
author_sort Bente Kiilerich
collection DOAJ
description 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.
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publishDate 2023-12-01
publisher University of Oslo Library
record_format Article
series Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia
spelling doaj-art-cebd06b0918b4d9d81e6413aa343c6bd2025-08-20T03:51:59ZengUniversity of Oslo LibraryActa ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia0065-09002611-36862023-12-013623 N.S.10.5617/acta.10488Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculptureBente Kiilerich0University of Bergen 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. https://journals.uio.no/acta/article/view/10488 Empathy, motion, emotion, embodied simulation, mirror neurons, pain, Hellenistic sculpture, Roman sculpture.
spellingShingle Bente Kiilerich
Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia
Empathy, motion, emotion, embodied simulation, mirror neurons, pain, Hellenistic sculpture, Roman sculpture.
title Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
title_full Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
title_fullStr Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
title_full_unstemmed Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
title_short Pleasing horror: empathic response to suffering and pain in Antique sculpture
title_sort pleasing horror empathic response to suffering and pain in antique sculpture
topic Empathy, motion, emotion, embodied simulation, mirror neurons, pain, Hellenistic sculpture, Roman sculpture.
url https://journals.uio.no/acta/article/view/10488
work_keys_str_mv AT bentekiilerich pleasinghorrorempathicresponsetosufferingandpaininantiquesculpture