ID: 450
Ressource_Provider: Jérôme Bourgon
Title: St Sebastian (detail)
DocumentNature: Photolithograph
Repository: Unknown
Color: Color
Particulars: Detail of Mantegna's Santo Sebastiano, the face of the Martyr is pervaded with an "ecstatic joy", from Celestial origin. Representations of this kind likely influenced the interpretation of the tortured Chinese's expression by Bataille and other commentators.
Topic: Supplice (esthetic representation of)

Related Replication (1)

1  Ressource_Provider: Jérôme Bourgon
    Title: Reading "ectstatic Joy" on a tormented face
    Information: The picture published in Berthelot's article, "Les supplices chinois", settled the common belief that people suffering lingchi paradoxically resented "ecstatic joy". This greatly influenced various authors, the most famous being Bataille. A comparison between the picture and the photograph shows that this interpretation was determined, in fact, by cliched representations of Christian martyrs (here St Sebastian), which were superiimposed on an indecidable expression. The spanish painter Solana, though expressly influenced by Christian iconography (El Greco), shows not "joy" nor "ecstasis" in his Suplicio Chino, however.

Derniére modification le : 2006-05-04