Stendhal Syndrome

The ideal harmony of Michelangelo's David was the first example of homoerotic art I ever saw. Paintings of Renaissance pageboys and Caravaggio's androgynes evoke warm and tender feelings in me.

Not shock or dismay. Italian psychiatrist Dr. Graziella Magherini studies a pathology I never expected exists. Especially in the 21st century.

She is Italy's expert on strong reactions to art: 30 years ago, she began studying what she later called the "Stendhal syndrome," named after the French writer who collapsed, as he wrote after a visit to Florence in 1817, from "a pitch of excitement wherein the celestial sensations of the fine arts meet the passions."

Over 10 years, she studied some 100 cases of visitors to Florence suffering similar breakdowns after their encounters with Italy's art, architecture and history, experiencing panic, euphoria, depression, even hallucinations.

These days, her studies have zeroed in on sex, and specifically how Caravaggio's sexually ambiguous young boys have caused similar mental episodes especially in men - more broadly, how the charge of sex in great art can also overwhelm.