Bosh And Benvenuto: Painting Analysis
Three paintings depicting mental illness and how society tried to rid the people of these illnesses before modern time are Hieronymous Bosh (Flowers of Folly/Stones of Madness), Brueghel’s Stone Operation, and Girolamo Di Benvenuto’s painting of Exorcism. In Bosh’s painting, there are four individuals: a man with a funnel hat, attempting to cut open the second man’s brain to extract the stone of madness, there is also a man who is holding a vase and a woman who is watching the event, while she balances a book on her head. There are nearby cities in the background; however, the painting is set in the middle of nowhere. In Brueghel’s painting, there are many people with mental illnesses and some with physical illnesses gathering in a town street.
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A mental illness could be someone not following the same set societal rules or acting crazy compared to fellow citizens. They believed that mental illnesses must be fixed and they believed that to fix a mental illness the stones must be removed. Once the stones were removed they believed that the person with a mental illness would be cured. I believe this perspective greatly impacted the people suffering from a mental illness. They would most likely feel out casted and not accepted. I also believe that the person who they performed the surgery to remove the stone would die. Opening the head to get to the brain would mean there is an excessive loss of blood and the skull would be broken. It would not be an effective method of curing the individual, but rather a method of killing the person. In Benvenuto’s painting, the mental illness was seen more as evil, which has possessed the mind, causing the individual to have a mental illness. To treat this, a holy person, such as St. Catherine of Siena would be used to remove this evil from the individual’s brain. Chants and verses may have been used to cast out the evil. This most likely effected individuals with a mental illness because they were viewed as evil or unfit. This would be a difficult label to endure. Everyone wants to be accepted and I believe most people want to be good. I imagine that
A mental illness could be someone not following the same set societal rules or acting crazy compared to fellow citizens. They believed that mental illnesses must be fixed and they believed that to fix a mental illness the stones must be removed. Once the stones were removed they believed that the person with a mental illness would be cured. I believe this perspective greatly impacted the people suffering from a mental illness. They would most likely feel out casted and not accepted. I also believe that the person who they performed the surgery to remove the stone would die. Opening the head to get to the brain would mean there is an excessive loss of blood and the skull would be broken. It would not be an effective method of curing the individual, but rather a method of killing the person. In Benvenuto’s painting, the mental illness was seen more as evil, which has possessed the mind, causing the individual to have a mental illness. To treat this, a holy person, such as St. Catherine of Siena would be used to remove this evil from the individual’s brain. Chants and verses may have been used to cast out the evil. This most likely effected individuals with a mental illness because they were viewed as evil or unfit. This would be a difficult label to endure. Everyone wants to be accepted and I believe most people want to be good. I imagine that