I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 182 Saint Denis

Speaking of Saint-Denis, he may be the most prominent figure in France after the Virgin of the Son of God. He has his icon in many churches in Paris, and his characteristics are very prominent. Why do people always make saints carry their torture instruments and mutilated bodies with them, like **** always carrying a cross, crown of thorns on his head, St. Agatha always holding pliers (Roman emperor ordered soldiers hurt her chest with pliers), St. Bartholomew with a dagger (he was stripped of his skin)... But even the Holy Bartholomew is intact, at least not showing the tragic state of being stripped of the skin, But only Saint-Denis, the saint has no head, and above his icon is a circular holy light above his neck. His head was held in his hands, depending on the situation, and sometimes he seemed quite at ease.

Saint-Denis is the patron saint of France, but how he was enshrined by the French? The gods of Olympus, Christianity is just a heresy, and with the increasing number of Christians, the attitude of Roman priests and officials has changed from ignoring indifference to harshness and ferocity. Those caught and punished or even put to death, unless they were willing to admit their mistakes and convert to the **** of Olympus.

Saint-Denis was originally a judge in Athens. Since he converted to Christianity, he has become the most loyal believer. In order to spread the faith, he and three other followers came to Paris, where there were many believers, and he became a After the first bishop of Paris, the administrator of Rome arrested them. Saint-Denis was thrown into the lion's cage and crucified, but he never gave in and betrayed God. In 261 AD, Saint-Denis and his followers were executed by beheading.

The place where they were executed is now called Montmartre, and in this era it was called the Mound of the Martyrs, but they were not buried there, because on the second day of the execution, when people tried to gather their bodies, they were horrified He found that the three bodies without heads slowly stood up, picked up their heads, walked to the stream not far away, washed their heads, then lifted them up high and walked towards the north, He went all the way to a small village about two miles away before he fell down and really died.

People buried them there, and many years later, a huge church was built on the spot. This church is Saint-Denis and one of the churches most familiar to the French royal family, because all members of the royal family will eventually be buried there. There, starting from Clovis I, Louis has been there twice, once to **** his father Louis XIII, and once to make a complete settlement with Gaston, the former Duke of Orleans - the royal tomb is not gloomy, there is sunshine during the day, There are candles and torches at night. There are no heavy sarcophagi to be seen here, only a cold marble statue. They are neatly dressed and crowned. They lie calmly over the mausoleum with their eyes closed, their hands folded, as if they are praying their last prayers - Anne The Queen Mother said to Louis that she will be here in the future, and so will Louis, and Philip will be no exception. They will wait here for the end to come, and then, under the guidance of angels, ascend to heaven and sit with God and saints.

   "Maybe it's Saint-Denis." Queen Anne smiled and looked forward to it.

Louis endured it for a while before saying it, maybe Saint Denis didn't intend to sit with the descendants of those who tortured and then killed him, and what was it like to make a saint who was martyred in Paris the patron saint of France thing? Shouldn't he curse these infidels and complain for ten thousand years? Anyway, he probably would do that. It can only be said that the reason why saints can become saints is because they are willing to repay their grievances with virtue. In addition, the reason why saints can be canonized after death is not because they bully the dead and cannot speak?

In short, it is really difficult for Louis' various slanders to be made public, but this is what made the former bishop of Mazarin feel gratified. If there is a country, who should be the least religious, it is probably the king. If anyone wants to disagree , just go and see Louis VII, Philip II, Louis IX (St. Louis) who did countless white jobs in the Crusades... Although some people may say that at least Philip II is still in chaos The robbery (no no no, not to the heathen, but to Richard the Lionheart) had some benefits, but they definitely did not make up for the loss of France.

Although it was lengthy to write, the real prayer was only a few minutes. Louis got up, drew a cross on his chest, and sincerely prayed that the future war would be so smooth. Before leaving, surrounded by ministers and generals, Louis. Gaze once more at the icon of Saint-Denis, this time the Saint-Castle of France—perhaps because of being moved into the sun, looking less grim and even kinder.

  ——

Hieronymus Bosch raised the charcoal with a smile. The triptych can generally be connected or separated, but the subject must be the same way of painting. Since he said Saint-Denis, it means Saint-Denis. Ni is the subject of this triptych, Rubens sits behind the teacher and watches as the old wizard draws the outlines of three figures on the far left panel, dressed in plain robes but with belongings on their heads. The aperture of the saint, that is to say, what Bosch wants to describe should be the scene when Saint-Denis left Athens, and the other two are his followers. Saint-Denis makes a prayer gesture and points to the sky with one hand, indicating that he has Hearing the call and command of God, the two men bowed their heads, crossed their arms, and made a gesture of obedience.

This subject matter is not right according to the habit of triptych, because generally speaking, the middle of the triptych is the gaochao of the whole picture, which is the most important scene - let other painters plan, the leftmost should be the mission of Saint-Denis, In the middle is the scene of Saint-Denis holding his head, and on the right is the saint ascending into heaven and the church erected on the ground—according to Bosch’s current plan, the main drawing board in the middle may be used to depict the saint’s missionary scene. At the end is the scene of the saint showing the miracle...

Immediately, Rubens laughed, he was really stupid, Hieronymus Bosch's painting is a curse, it leads people to hell, in this case, how can his painting calm people, suffer from appease.

After thinking about it like this, Rubens' expression became a lot more indifferent. Next, Hieronymus Bosch made an unexpected move. He did not complete all the sketches at once, "Go and adjust the paint. Come on, Rubens," he said, changing a piece of charcoal and beginning to draw the manuscript, with a finer touch.

Although eggs are used in the pigment configuration of tempera painting, there are three methods, using whole eggs, egg yolks and beaten egg whites, each with its own advantages, but Rubens does not need to make a choice, because when Bosch was painting The paint used has always been made from the toad's eggs, the eggs it carries on its back, and the eggs must be alive before grinding.

He grabbed a toad that was big enough for a baby's face from the cauldron on the side. This required skill, because the eggs hidden in the skin of the toad's back could not be broken. He held the toad with one hand and held up a very The small blunt silver fork began to pick the eggs one by one from the toad's skin. It was a job that required eyesight and skill. The toad squirmed and struggled uncomfortably, maybe it also realized its The fate of the child was tragic - the eggs fell with the white venom secreted from the skin of the toad in the stone mortar, which is also common elsewhere, and people used it to pound pepper and garlic - Rubens used to pound toad eggs, mash This round, slippery thing felt bad, but luckily he got used to it, maybe it only took a few minutes or less.

  The next step is to pour the toner into the "egg liquid".

When it comes to color powder, it is also different from what mortals use, such as yellow. Most mortals use realgar powder, but in the hands of wizards, it is the gall of cows, and in Bosch, it is women who died by waterboarding. It is ridiculous that many of them came from the hands of priests, who held witch trials for people without authorization. Those innocent women, whether they were innocent or not, were sunk into rivers or lakes, and when they surfaced, it meant that she had been attacked by the devil. Temptation and shelter, sinking is innocent and innocent - they may have given birth to too many children, because the devil will give the witch a strong fertility; maybe they will not have children, because she is the devil's lover; maybe they are ugly, because God mainly Use this to warn people to stay away from her, maybe very beautiful, because they have to rely on their charming faces to seduce others to fall; maybe old, because it is because they have lost their youth that they turn their backs on God and make a vow to the devil, maybe very young, because It is ignorance that is easily led to **** by the devil - the only thing they have in common is that they have a bitter gall soaked with hatred and fear, which is brown on the outside and yellow on the inside.

Turquoise blue, this dazzling color is often used by mortals to paint the sky and the robe of the Virgin. It should have come from the powder of lapis lazuli, but here in Bosch, the shriveled eyeballs poured out of the bottle, in the master's How beautiful were those daisy blue, sky blue, lake blue eyes when alive, now they are like shrunken dried apricots, but after grinding, that blue reveals the charm like A huge whirlpool that makes people unable to extricate themselves.

Deep purple, how precious is this pigment to mortals, 250,000 conch shells the size of a pinhead can still extract half an ounce of dye, only enough to dye a robe, only the emperors of Rome used to have it Qualified to wear, but for wizards, especially black wizards like Bosch, it is not difficult to get them, just go to the person who is poisoned by mandala, aconite or aconite, extract his bone marrow, you can get Such a gorgeous purple.

Bright red, either cinnabar, or cochineal insects that have only been found in recent years, but wizards only need to look for a mother who has lost a child, or a girl who has lost a lover, or a young man who has lost a best friend, their tears of pain Mixed with alum, it is the most gorgeous red, which is the color of hard work.

   There is only one color shared by wizards and mortals, and that is mummy brown.

Some people may ask how much effort and time it takes to raise these toners, ahem, a wizard like Bosch doesn't have the patience to wait - no matter what color it is, he can available anytime.

If one were to look at the sketches of Hieronymus, it would be difficult to see what, only the most attentive and most knowledgeable could see that Saint-Denis had a sad face, his praying fingers curled unnaturally, his hands pointed towards the sky even more gloomy. As if to block the punishment from above, one of the two attendants looked at the shadow of Saint-Denis, the other looked at a pigeon that fell on a branch, a snake protruded from the tail feathers of the pigeon, and the snake made a gesture of devouring .

When the final draft is completed, there will be more details that can be found. Saint-Denis is walking on the road to death. His feet are covered with weeds like shackles, and horned shadows are cast on his robes. The sky is not clear. blue or white, but a crimson like twilight—one of his entourage smiled, a smile full of strange malice, and he and the other were close to Saint-Denis's body, only one hand showing Come, the other hand is hidden behind Saint Denis's back, as if urging, and as if preparing for the murder.

"You will complete the next work." Hieronymus said - Rubens hesitated, "I'm not good at cursing." This is the truth. Although Rubens studied under Bosch, he was also a A wizard, but of course he can pour emotion and magic into the picture, but his paintings are rarely insane or confusing - except for those who are sensitive, who may be because of Rubens' residual emotion in the picture feel terrified or apprehensive.

"This is what I want." Jeromenes said, listening to the teacher's unquestioning tone, Rubens had to sit in front of the drawing board. The tempera is made of many thin paints, layered on top of each other, yeah Rominis and Rubens have different styles, and thinking that this triptych is likely to be detrimental to the French king, Rubens is even more hesitant-although it may be dissatisfied with the teacher, he still tries his best to put some warm and kind words. Thoughts and feelings were revealed through the tip of the pen, Saint-Denis's originally bitter face became sad but firm, as if he was aware of his end but not afraid, and his fingers became more plump and soft, so that it seemed at least Not like a claw, but the hand of a saint, and the expression of his entourage is no longer so sinister, only a little stupid and innocent.

   As he painted, he peeped at the teacher's expression. He thought that Jeromenes would be angry, but the latter just smiled and said nothing.

   (end of this chapter)