The Healing of a Woman with the Falling Sickness in a sequence of pictures
Henry Perche
From the "Book of the deeds of the Magister Saint Luis", 15th century




The Healing of a Woman with the Falling Sickness in a sequence of pictures

Museo alemán de epilepsia en Kork

www.epilepsiemuseum.de
 

 

 

 

 


   This page from the "Book of the deeds of the Magister Saint Luis" from Normandy shows in several individual episodes the healing of a woman who has been "unable to stand upright" since the second year of her life.

Three seizures in different stages are depicted, then her parents making prayers of supplication, and finally the healed woman. The outer frame depicts the inside of a cathedral.

On the left of the picture there is a young woman lying stretched out on the ground like a doll. Her head, which is twisted to the side stands in stark contrast to the neat hair. Perhaps the painter wanted to emphasise the idea of her being "so young, so beautiful, so ill."

The symptoms as they are portrayed here also suggest that the young girl possibly suffered from psychogenic seizures.

close window