From the deep past and right up to the present day, our species has performed ritual decapitations. David cuts off Goliath’s head and lugs it to Jerusalem. U.S. soldiers in Vietnam pose for photographs with the severed heads of Việt Cộng. ISIS live-streams beheadings for browsing by anyone with an internet connection. History “tells us that it is within our capacity to commit, to accept, to watch and even to enjoy the spectacle of a beheading,” anthropologist Frances Larson observes: 

“it is an act that has the power to horrify, and part of the horror is that a severed head is so captivating. The dead human face is a siren: dangerous but irresistible…We cannot confront another person’s head without sharing an understanding: face to face, we are peering into ourselves. We are hard-wired to react to a person’s facial expression, spontaneously and unconsciously…” [Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found]

Artist Valentin de Boulogne made his painting of David and Goliath around 1620. It’s housed in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

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[Reblogged from my art-focused Tumblr]