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Skin and the Non‐Human Human: Transformation and Reversal in T itian's The Flaying of M arsyas
Author(s) -
Rösing Lilian Munk
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.2012.01326.x
Subject(s) - painting , psychoanalytic theory , humanity , id, ego and super ego , subject (documents) , psychology , abstract art , art , frame (networking) , psychoanalysis , art history , philosophy , theology , computer science , telecommunications , library science
The article puts forward an aesthetic and psychoanalytic analysis of T itian's painting, The Flaying of M arsyas , arguing that the painting is a reflection on the human subject as a being constituted by skin and by a core of non‐humanity. The analysis is partly an answer to M elanie H art's (2007) article ‘Visualizing the mind: Looking at T itian's Flaying of M arsyas ', addressing features of the painting not commented on by H art, and supplementing H art's ( K leinian) theoretical frame by involving D idier A nzieu's ‘skin ego’, S lavoj Z izek's concept of the ‘non‐human’, G iorgio A gamben's term of the ‘Muselmann’, and A nton E hrenzweig's psychoanalytic theory of artistic creation. Whereas H art is focusing on form and colour, I also turn my attention towards the texture of the painting.