Terror and ecstasy are two emotions that have a strong presence in the arts of most cultures throughout the history of humanity. These emotions converge in art and these hallucination inducing images have threatened and attracted us because they break our perception of everyday life. We are terrified when we face these dark figures that challenge our notion of reality, but underneath that darkness we encounter a sort of ecstatic pleasure that can only be perceived when we’re scared out of our wits. Think about it, when a friend jump scares you, at first you freak out but then this delicious adrenaline rush tingles across your body, this it what we’re referring to when we say that horror and ecstasy go hand in hand.
The Nightmare (1781), Henry Fuseli
Have you ever felt tingle of pleasure during a nightmare? Dreams are the perfect place where reality and the forces of the unknown merge. We can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. In Fuseli’s nightmare, we can see how dark, demonic beings crouch over the body of a sleeping woman. Even though her face shows a certain amount of distress, her posture suggests physical delight, as if she were surrendering to the power of her dream. Her billowing, shining white gown contrasts beautifully with the dark bedroom and the bloodshot eyes of the demon. Fuseli shows us how our deepest fears are often tangled with our wildest unconscious desires.
The Eddystone Lighthouse in a Storm At Night, With Shipping (c. 1813), J.M.W. Turner
In Turner’s painting, nighttime covers the world with shadowed brushstrokes, dragging the viewer into a dark reality. It reminds us of the hidden beauty in a thunderstorm, where raindrops glisten with the moonlight and where lightning streaks the gray skies. It is a moment where the world is perceived as a threat and a thing of awe inspiring beauty. Darkness can be sublime and magnificent.
Frenzy of Exultations ( 1893), Władysław Podkowiński
Beasts have always horrified and enticed humanity. In the Frenzy of Exultations, Podkowinski frames a young woman embracing a mad horse, as if she were willing to be carried away by her own inner madness and desires. The horse’s frothing mouth and wild eyes are held back by the tenderness of the woman. It reminds us of the utter freedom that can be had if we just let go. The unknown can lead to unprecedented ecstasy and it is a matter of hurtling yourself into this darkness rather than staying behind on the sidelines.
Witches Going to Their Sabbath (1873), Luis Ricardo Falero
Falero’s fiendish parade is both revolting and erotic. Nubile witches fly with demons and hags, and in this melee we are both repelled and seduced. It’s a manic procession of the grotesque, reminding us that most of the times, the most wicked of things can also attract us like magnets.
The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca de Rimini (The Whirlwind of Lovers) (1826-7), William Blake
What’s the purpose of punishment if we can enjoy its effects? Blake’s vision of Dante’s Inferno plays with the notion that Hell was made to fit the needs of a sinner and it is a place the sinner will fully enjoy. The erotic flow of bodies in the frame ascends in a manic spiral, where the punishment of the lustful seems to become an eternal orgy.
The Illusionist (2007), Sigmar Polke
Angels and demons flutter above a blindfolded girl sitting in the middle of Polke’s frame. These illusions are is if they were the projections of the girls own imagination. They reveal the secrets that lurk, hidden away in the hallways of our psyche, those thoughts we consciously ignore to establish order in our lives. More than a illusion, the painting seems to show a truth: that there’s more to the world than what we can perceive through our five senses.
Love and Pain (1895), Edvard Munch
This oil painting by Munch is also widely known as The Vampire because it shows a redhead feeding off, or violently kissing, the neck of a man who seems to have quit life for good. A red streak of her hair falls on his face, hinting at the blood dripping from his injured body. However, his attitude seems to accept the deathly embrace of this woman, as if he was finally being set free.
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There is only a thin line between pain and pleasure. In the end, they’re nothing more than our brain’s reactions to the electrical impulses that we perceive with our senses. Maybe the reason why terror and ecstasy go hand in hand is because these overwhelming emotions surpass the barriers of bodily sensation; they reside in a place where pain and pleasure are one and the same.
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