Incidentally, you should go to Zadok's site right now for interesting ephemera. For instance, scroll down to his pictures from a shop window full of miniature soldiers --including Swiss Guardsmen. And further down for a report on a psychologist doing a study on the impact of the David on its viewers.
Stendhal's Syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when the individual is exposed to an overdose of beautiful art. At least once a month, foreign tourists have been rushed to Florence's Santa Maria Nuova Hospital suffering from an attack of the syndrome. It is named after the famous 19th century French author Stendhal(pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle), who gave an early detailed description of experiencing the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence .(snip)
Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in the art in Florence, especially at the famed Uffizi Gallery, from the early 19th century on, this was not described as a specific syndromeuntil Magherini wrote it up in 1979 .Magherini observed and described more than100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance .The psychiatrist recently said that more than half the patients are tourists from European countries. Italians, on the other hand, appeared to be immune to the condition, along with the Japanese, "who are apparently so organized in their sight-seeing that they rarely have time for emotional attacks."
