Jug in the Form of a Head, Self-Portrait

It has been noted by a number of art critics that photographic reproductions of the object largely fail to convey the impact it makes when viewed firsthand.

In 1989 the critic Laurel Gasque wrote, "This macabre image, fired at a very high temperature literally and figuratively, fuses life, myth, and history into an unforgettable emblem of a ravaged man.

The story that he left the ear with a prostitute called Rachel asking her to "guard it like a treasure" that immediately gained currency, appears to originate from a local news report of the time.

According to art critic Martin Gayford, prostitutes were to van Gogh Sisters of Mercy, providing "a little taste of paradise at 2 francs a time", and representing his single emotional and sensuous point of contact with other people.

He had told one of the policemen attending the case when van Gogh was discovered unconscious, "Be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me, tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him.

[20] Both Prado and the equally infamous murderer Pranzini were at one time patrons at the Parisian café Le Tambourin where Van Gogh had exhibited Japanese prints.

[18] Collins continues, "If Gauguin had been terrified by the sight of the near-dead Vincent curled up in his bloody sheets, he may have had the counterphobic desire to reassure himself of his courage by taking an unflinching look at Prado's execution.

"[18] The work is informed by Romantic and Symbolist iconography,[18] as well as motifs from Christian and classical sources;[4] it evokes Christ, John the Baptist and Orpheus, all of whom were martyred for their passion and beliefs.

Gauguin was disillusioned with the materialism he saw around him and, at the time, felt alienated by the art-buying public and from members of the art scene who reacted against his domineering and self-aggrandising personality.

Of another similar self-portrait, Christ in the Garden of Olives, Gauguin wrote There I have painted my own self portrait ... but it also represents the crushing of an ideal, and a pain that is both divine and human, Jesus is totally abandoned; his disciples are leaving him, in a setting as sad as his soul.

[4]The technique used to create the object was borrowed in part from the Far East, especially in the use of dripped paint on glazed stoneware which was influenced by Japanese craftsmen of the Takatori region.