SCP-1074

**SCP-1074**, or "Stendhal's Nightmare", is an upcoming SCP in SCP: Containment Breach Unity Edition that will be added in an as of yet unannounced update.

## Description

**SCP-1074** is a portrait-sized oil painting on canvas, produced by an unidentified artist. When photographed or videotaped, the entirety of **SCP-1074** appears to be painted a uniform shade of gray, with distinctly visible brush strokes. Samples removed from **SCP-107**4 by a remote-controlled drone have been identified as an oil-based gray paint of the type commonly available in art supply stores in the United States.

When **SCP-1074** is viewed by a human being, the observer immediately begins to exhibit physiological symptoms similar to the onset of Stendhal syndrome, including increased heart rate, sweating, and vertigo. The individual viewing **SCP-1074** will attempt to vividly describe the image they are seeing to anyone present, frequently describing it as the greatest or most moving work of art they have ever seen. No two individuals exposed to **SCP-1074** have described the same painting; recurring themes in subject statements describe imagery suggesting human mortality, individual insignificance, legal or moral judgment, religious eschatology, and [REDACTED].

Once viewing **SCP-1074**, the subject will not willingly turn their gaze from it unless physically restrained, and will attempt to convince anyone else in their presence to look at it as well. Subjects will become rapidly disoriented and detached, attempting to discuss philosophical questions raised by the painting, of an increasingly esoteric nature as exposure continues. Within 3-5 minutes of first exposure, the subject becomes catatonic and ceases responding to outside stimuli. No means of reversing this state of catatonia has been discovered; the subject will remain stationary and die of natural causes within several days unless physically tended to. EEG readouts of individuals displaying **SCP-1074**-related catatonia indicate that the subject continues to demonstrate a high level of brain activity, commensurate with a person who is awake and fully aware of their surroundings.

If a subject is removed from the vicinity of **SCP-1074** prior to the onset of catatonia, physical symptoms of exposure abate within 30 seconds. The psychological effects, however, continue to develop, albeit at a slower pace. Such individuals will frequently describe every detail of the picture they observed and will report seeing it in their dreams, upon closing their eyes or blinking, and in their peripheral vision while awake. Confusion, dissociation, and catatonia ensue within 5-8 days of first exposure on average; the lengthier the exposure to **SCP-1074**, the less time passes before onset of catatonia.

Class-A amnestics have proven capable of erasing memories of the image and restoring the subject to a normal mental state. In all observed cases, this is temporary; the subject will begin to report memories of the image, and associated mental defects, within seven days of receiving amnestics. Subsequent doses of amnestics have a gradually diminishing effect; the longest recorded period between exposure and catatonia at this time is 6 weeks, 4 days.