Freud's Trip to Orvieto ― The Great Doctor's Unresolved Confrontation With Antisemitism, Death, and Homoeroticism; His Passion for Paintings; and the Writer in His Footsteps

"At once profound and wonderfully diverse, and as gripping as any detective story. Nicholas Fox Weber mixes psychoanalysis, art history, and the personal with an intricacy and spiritedness that Freud himself would have admired." ?John Banville, author of The Sea and The Blue Guitar

"An ingenious and fascinating reading of Freud's response to Signorelli's frescoes at Orvieto. . . . It is filled with intelligence, wit, and clear-eyed analysis not only of the paintings themselves, but how we respond to them in all their startling sexuality and invigorating beauty." ?Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and Nora Webster

After visiting an Italian Renaissance cathedral, Sigmund Freud deemed Luca Signorelli's frescoes the greatest artwork he'd ever encountered, yet a year later couldn't recall the artist's name. The memory loss vexed Freud and has long puzzled other analysts. When Nicholas Fox Weber discovered an obscure document about this pivotal episode in Freud's life, he turned to the frescoes themselves. This pilgrimage leads him into the psychological and emotional mysteries surrounding masculinity and identity. Through rich illustrations, Weber evokes art's singular capacity to provoke, destabilize, and enchant us, as it did Freud, and awaken our deepest memories, fears, and desires.

Nicholas Fox Weber is the director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and author of fourteen books, including biographies of Balthus and Le Corbusier. He has written for the New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, ARTnews, Town & Country, and Vogue, among other publications.