Thanks Wayne! Words for swords are pretty carelessly tossed around, especially with the uninitiated in their accounts. The word rapier was used in one, and as we know there are transitional rapiers, small swords, and character as well as description are vague. In various books on dueling I have seen, there are seemingly variations with the swords used, and clearly the wounds caused by 'dueling swords', not sabers and not rapiers, were result of powerful slashes.
Gaugin had a rather 'rugged' past, and a tough guy attitude. He had been in the military and was a bit of an adventurer before going into his 'boring' stock broker situation, then art. The Hungarians are probably the most bad ass swordmen, and their reputation is renowned.
The self mutilation thing in my view well served the art historians in championing the troubled and psychologically distraught Van Gogh's legacy. It seems that the sword slash version was pretty much set aside, as planned in the pact between Van Gogh and Gaugin. The accounts even by doctors of the time supporting the self mutilation do not seem supporting by modern medical researchers.
It does seem that with Gaugin's fencing background, the sword was an epee rather than hanger etc. and a letter to Van Gogh later asked for him to send the 'rest' of his fencing gear....the face masks and gloves.....the sword (epee) was not left with them.
I am hoping that perhaps readers might add images of dueling epees of France and Germany (there seem to be many Solingen types) here, and perhaps may have also have other info on this aspect of the Van Gogh mysteries.
|