Famous epileptics in representational art (I)

The list of famous epileptics is not so short - it ranges from Balaam, the prophetic seer of the Old Testament (c. 1250 BC), through Caesar and Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles (at around the turn of the age), Cardinal Richelieu (17th century), Napoleon, Dostoyevsky and van Gogh (18th and 19th centuries) to politicians, artists and renowned sportsmen of our times.

Many of the historical epileptic personalities were represented by artists in paintings or sculptures during their lifetimes and also posthumously. Understandably, the epilepsy of the person portrayed played hardly any part in the design of the art work, either because the disease was not known to the artist, or because the prominent personality wished to be shown in their power and repute, but not in their weakness.

One of the few exceptions are presented by certain images of the Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, who until his conversion (he was an embittered persecutor of the adherents of the emerging Christianity in the first century AD) went by the name Saul of Tarsus (after his birthplace in Asia Minor [southern Anatolia]). The topic of the frequent portrayals of Saul/Paul is the so-called Damascus experience of Saul, the persecutor of Christ, who while on a journey from Jerusalem to Damascus fell to the ground shortly before reaching his destination and heard a voice calling to him: "Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul was able to stand up again by himself after a short time, but then was blind for three days, only being able to see again through the laying on of the hands by the disciple Ananias.

Much argues for the fact that the Apostle of the Gentiles was actually suffering from epilepsy, above all the references made my Paul in his numerous Epistles about the "thorn in my flesh", which make a diagnosis of epilepsy very probable. Still today, one refers in professional circles to a "Pauline seizure" when an epileptic event is associated with transient blindness or an obvious impairment of vision. And in England and Ireland, up until today epilepsy bears the folk name "Saint Paul’s disease"!

The "Damascus experience" with its fall, hallucinatory sensation and (transient) blindness is considered by some epilepsy specialists to be a symptom of a focal epilepsy that manifests as a secondary generalised grand mal with its origin being in the vision centre (occipital lobe of the brain).

Artists portray the fall of Saul almost exclusively as a fall from a horse, although there is no mention of a animal being ridden in the Acts of the Apostles. Nevertheless, through this type of representation it is possible to increase the drama of the event even more.

Also in the picture by Michelangelo ("The Conversion of Paul", Vatican, Rome, painted between 1542 and 1545), Saul/Paul has fallen off a horse and now lies helpless on the ground, while a servant tries to support him. The painter shows the fallen one with closed eyelids, a reference to the blinding that has occurred.

Also in the famous picture of the conversion by Caravaggio (in the Maria del Popolo church in Rome, painted around 1600), the bodily position of Saul lying on the ground suggests the tonic phase of a grand mal seizure.