梵高真的割下了自己的整隻耳朵嗎
New Evidence on van Gogh’s Ear Continues Debate on Painter’s Mental State
梵高真的割下了自己的整隻耳朵嗎？
AMSTERDAM — Everyone knows that Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear. But since that fateful event nearly 128 years ago, there has been continuing debate among scholars about the severity of that mutilation, which took place in Arles, France, in December 1888. Did he simply slice off a little chunk of his ear, or did he lop off the entire ear?
阿姆斯特丹——大家都知道文森特·梵高(Vincent van Gogh)割掉了自己的左耳。不過，自從近128年前那個重大事件發生後，學者們對於1888年12月發生在法國阿爾勒的那次自殘的嚴重程度一直存在爭議。他是隻割掉了一小塊耳朵還是割掉了整隻耳朵？
The author and amateur historian Bernadette Murphy, while researching the last period of that Dutch Post Impressionist’s life for a new book, discovered a document in an American archive that may help resolve the issue. A note written by Félix Rey, a doctor who treated van Gogh at the Arles hospital, contains a drawing of the mangled ear showing that the artist indeed cut off the whole thing.
作家、史學愛好者貝爾納黛特·墨菲(Bernadette Murphy)爲寫新書研究了這位荷蘭後印象派畫家人生的最後一個時期。她在美國的一個檔案館發現了一份文件，可能有助於解開這個謎團。費利克斯·雷伊(Félix Rey)是在阿爾勒醫院爲梵高治療的醫生，他在一封短箋中畫下了被割掉的耳朵，表明這位藝術家真的割下了整隻耳朵。
The letter and drawing will be displayed for the first time at the Van Gogh Museum’s exhibition “On the Verge of Insanity,” which opens here on Friday and runs through Sept. 25, along with previously unexhibited documents and artifacts that try to provide more detailed evidence about van Gogh’s mental illness.
這封信和這張圖首次在梵高博物館(Van Gogh Museum)的展覽“瀕臨瘋狂”(On the Verge of Insanity)中展出。該展覽週五在阿姆斯特丹開幕，將持續至9月25日。它還包括之前從未展出過的文件和藝術品，努力提供更多關於梵高精神疾病的具體證據。
The exhibition will also include about 25 paintings and other objects, like a corroded revolver that van Gogh may have used to kill himself, museum officials say. These will try to explore, in particular, the final stretch of his life while his troubles escalated, from the ear-cutting incident to July 29, 1890, when he apparently committed suicide in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
博物館的工作人員說，這場展覽還將包括大約25件畫作和其他物品，比如梵高可能用來自殺的已經腐蝕的左輪手槍。這些東西將着重探索他人生的最後一程，也就是從割耳事件到1890年7月29日他在法國瓦茲河畔歐韋自殺，期間他的精神疾病越來越嚴重。
The subject of the artist’s mental state has always fascinated people who admire his art, but until now the Van Gogh Museum, which contains the largest collection of his work in the world, has not directly addressed the subject. Until recently, the museum has focused on van Gogh’s aesthetic and technical progression, but interest in his biography is driving a different approach to exhibitions.
這位藝術家的精神狀況一直令仰慕他藝術作品的人着迷，不過直到現在，梵高博物館都沒有直接探索過這個主題。梵高博物館是世界上收藏梵高作品最多的地方。直到不久前，該博物館依然重點關注梵高的美學和技術成長，不過對他生平的興趣正開啓一種不同的展覽方式。
“This is really the start of a new series of small, focused exhibitions, which will only take one floor of the building but will enable us to give the visitors more information about van Gogh’s life,” said Nienke Bakker, curator of paintings for the Van Gogh Museum and curator of this exhibition. “This seemed for us to be the perfect subject to start with.”
“這真的是一系列新的小型專題展覽的開端，它將只佔一個樓層，不過將給觀衆帶來更多關於梵高生平的信息，”梵高博物館的繪畫策展人寧克·巴克(Nienke Bakker)說。他也是這場展覽的策展人。“我們覺得這個主題似乎是個完美的開端。”
Ms. Bakker said that most museum visitors wanted to know the details of van Gogh’s life: “The three most frequently asked questions are: What happened with his ear? What kind of illness did he have? and, Why did he commit suicide?”
巴克說，大部分博物館觀衆想知道梵高人生的一些細節：“最常問的三個問題是：他的耳朵到底怎麼了？他有什麼疾病？他爲什麼自殺？”
The exhibition coincides with the release of the book, “Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story,” by Ms. Murphy.
展覽進行之時，正好是墨菲的書《梵高的耳朵：真實的故事》(Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story)出版之際。
Steven Naifeh, an American historian and author of the 2011 “Van Gogh: The Life,” said in an email after looking at the new document, “I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, that they had indeed found new information from Rey, but it is not new, and it is not credible.”
美國曆史學家史蒂文·奈菲(Steven Naifeh)2011年曾出版《梵高傳》(Van Gogh: The Life)。他在看完這份新文件後在電子郵件中寫道：“我本來真心以爲他們從雷伊那裏找到了新東西，可惜它不是新信息，也不可靠。”
In his biography, Mr. Naifeh argues that witnesses who saw van Gogh after Dr. Rey, including his brother Theo’s wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, the artist Paul Signac and van Gogh’s doctor in Auvers-sur-Oise, Dr. Paul Gachet, said that the entire ear was not missing.
奈菲在自己的傳記中聲稱，在雷伊之後見過梵高的證人都說割掉的不是整隻耳朵，他們包括梵高弟弟西奧(Theo)的妻子約翰娜·梵高-邦格爾(Johanna van Gogh-Bonger)、藝術家保羅·西尼亞克(Paul Signac)以及梵高在瓦茲河畔歐韋的醫生保羅·加謝(Paul Gachet)。
They all “saw a portion of the mutilated ear remaining — so much, in fact, that, when Vincent was seen from face-on, the damage could go unnoticed,” Mr. Naifeh wrote. “Dr. Gachet, who saw Vincent in Auvers in 1890, made a very detailed etching of the artist’s mutilated ear at that time showing that the entire pinna (outer portion) of the ear was not taken off, but the missing portion was more than just a lobe.”
奈菲寫道，他們都“看到部分耳朵還留着，實際上留下的部分很大，從正面看，根本注意不到耳朵被割過”，“1890年在歐韋見到文森特的加謝非常細緻地畫出了這位藝術家當時殘缺的耳朵，它表明，整個耳廓沒被割掉，不過，割掉的部分比耳垂要大”。
Various reasons for van Gogh’s self-harm have been given in the past. In Paul Gauguin’s autobiographical novel,“Avant et Après,” he describes a disagreement between him and van Gogh in Arles after Gauguin decided to leave. Gauguin wrote that van Gogh chased him with a razor until Gauguin stopped him, and then van Gogh went home and wounded himself.
過去，對於梵高爲何自殘，可謂衆說紛紜。保羅·高更(Paul Gauguin)在自傳體小說《此前此後》(Avant et Après)中描述了在阿爾勒，自己決定離開之後與梵高之間發生的爭執。高更寫道，梵高拿着剃刀追他，直到高更制止了他，然後梵高回到家做出了自殘的舉動。
In her research, Ms. Murphy, who was born in Ireland and has lived in Provence, just outside Arles, for many years, was also able to identify the woman to whom van Gogh gave his ear. She said her name was Gabrielle, a young maid who worked in a brothel. She suffered for many years, Ms. Murphy said, with being called a prostitute because of the contact with van Gogh. According to a local newspaper report, he told her, “Keep this object carefully,” and she immediately fainted.
墨菲出生於愛爾蘭，在普羅旺斯住了很多年，就住在阿爾勒郊外。她在研究中還弄清了梵高把自己的耳朵交給了哪個女人。她說，那個女人名叫加布麗埃勒(Gabrielle)，是在一家妓院打工的年輕女僕。墨菲說，由於跟梵高的接觸，她被稱爲妓女，這讓她痛苦了很多年。當地報紙的一篇報道稱，他對她說“好好保管這個東西”，隨即她暈了過去。
“There’s something semireligious to the way he offers a part of his body to repair a part of her body,” Ms. Murphy said at a preview of the exhibition. “She had a nasty scar on her body, and it’s as if he’s giving her fresh flesh.”
“他奉上自己身體的一部分用於修補她身體的一部分，這帶有半宗教的意味，”墨菲預展上說，“她身上有一塊難看的傷疤，他像是在給予她鮮肉。”
Ms. Bakker now says she thinks this was the delirious, unconscious behavior that became characteristic of van Gogh’s series of mental breakdowns. Van Gogh had no recollection of the events surrounding the ear episode, and said his memories of his actions during breakdowns were usually vague. In the hospital after the ear episode, he was ashamed to learn what he had done, and immediately put himself in the care of Dr. Rey.
巴克現在說，她認爲這種精神錯亂、神志不清的行爲，是梵高一系列精神崩潰的表現特徵。梵高對割耳前後的事情沒有任何記憶，他說自己對精神崩潰時各種行爲的記憶通常是模糊的。他割耳後在醫院裏得知自己的行爲後感到很羞愧，立即讓雷伊醫生進行處理。
Van Gogh’s fame has always been linked to his complicated biography, and particularly to his madness. “The fact that 5-year-old children know who Vincent van Gogh is is partly because of this mangling of his ear,” Mr. Naifeh said in a phone interview. “If you were going to cite just a few facts about his life, this would be one of them.”
梵高的名聲總是與他複雜的人生聯繫在一起，尤其是他的瘋狂。“連5歲小孩都知道文森特·梵高是誰，一個原因是他割掉了自己的耳朵，”奈菲在電話採訪中說，“如果你只能着重講他人生的幾件事，這一件肯定包括在內。”
Many have tried to guess what kind of mental illness van Gogh had. Some suppose he may have had temporal lobe epilepsy, which can lead to seizures, erratic behavior and loss of consciousness, while others believe his symptoms were more similar to bipolar disorder. Ms. Murphy said she thought it might have been a combination of the two. During the exhibition, the museum will host a symposium with doctors weighing in on the matter.
很多人試圖猜測梵高得的是哪種精神疾病。有些人猜測他可能得的是顳葉癲癇，這可能導致突然發作、各種反常行爲和意識喪失，也有人認爲他的症狀更接近躁鬱症。墨菲說，她認爲可能是兩者兼而有之。趁着這次展覽，博物館還將舉辦一場研討會，請醫生們參與討論。
“We’ve been studying all these diagnoses that have been put forward in the 126 years since his death,” Ms. Bakker said. “Of course, it’s very hard to diagnose a person who is dead and has been dead a long time. We know what the symptoms were, because he was describing them in his own letters. He says he has hallucinations, that he’s speaking incoherently, that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“我們研究了他去世後126年裏人們給出的所有診斷，”巴克說，“當然，診斷一個已經死去很長時間的人非常困難。我們知道他的症狀，因爲他在信中有所描述。他說自己產生幻覺，說話語無倫次，不知道自己在幹什麼。”
Exhibited for the first time are a police report on van Gogh’s incident in Arles, and a petition by van Gogh’s neighbors there in 1889, which asked the city’s mayor to institutionalize the artist. Dr. Rey’s letter and drawing of van Gogh’s severed ear will be displayed next to the artist’s portrait of Dr. Rey, painted in January 1889 and given to the doctor as thanks for his care.
首次展出的物品包括關於梵高在阿爾勒事故的警方報告，以及1889年梵高鄰居們的請願書——他們要求市長把這位藝術家關進精神病院。雷伊的信以及梵高割下的耳朵的草圖，將與這位藝術家給雷伊畫的肖像並置展示。那幅肖像是1889年1月梵高爲了感謝這位醫生而創作並贈送給他的。
The goal of the exhibition is not to link the artwork to his mental state but rather to make clear that van Gogh was struggling to work despite a debilitating illness.
這場展覽的目的不是把他的藝術作品與他的精神狀態聯繫在一起，而是想表明，雖然梵高身患令人衰弱的疾病，但仍在奮力工作。
“It’s not the case that he was having these hallucinations and painting them,” Ms. Bakker said. “A lot of people still think that. It’s amazing the amount of art he was able to create, especially considering that there were sometimes quite long periods when he wasn’t able to work.”
“他並不是把自己的幻覺畫了下來，”巴克說，“很多人依然是這麼認爲的。令人驚歎的是，他能創作出那麼多藝術作品，尤其是考慮到有時他有相當長的時間都無法工作。”
