Arrogance And Madness

A multi-level and multi-dimensional sort-out and analysis are made from the surface to the centre, from the emotional to the rational through the study on Xu Wei's and Vincent van Gogh's painting styles, mental status, personality differences and their living geographical and historical background. On this basis, the article discusses their two different types of madness as well and clarifies some scholars'inaccurate perception that Xu Wei is exactly Van Gogh in China and explains that the insanity of Xu Wei is actually real life dissatisfaction while Van Gogh's madness is a kind of mental illness. Besides, the article emphasizes that although hallucinations and delusions affect his artistic creation to some extent, Van Gogh's paintings are drawn rationally on the whole rather than casually and wildly under psychotic attacks and delusions. In this sense, the manic practices in Xu Wei's and Van Gogh's artistic creations share some similarities but these similarities are merely apparent and reveal a kind of convergence in a similar cultural background. The purpose of this paper is to study a variety of text materials and make an in-depth analysis and clarification of the true facts of insanity between Xu Wei and Van Gogh and to explain the writer's basic academic point of view.