Chapter 179: Saint-Denis
Speaking of Saint-Denis, he is probably the second most prominent figure in France after the Son of God and the Virgin of God, and his icons are found in many churches in Paris, and his features are very remarkable- Louis never understood why the saints of this and before had to carry with them the instruments of torture and mutilated bodies of their deaths, such as Jesus always carrying the cross and wearing a crown of thorns, Saint Agatha always holding pliers (the Roman emperor ordered soldiers to hurt her chest with pliers), and St. Bartholomeus holding a dagger (he had been stripped of his skin...... But even St. Bartholomew was complete, at least not in the tragic state of being stripped of his skin, but only St. Denis, the saint had no head, and above his icon, above his neck, was a round holy light. His head was held in his own hands, and depending on the situation, he sometimes looked quite at ease.
Saint-Denis is the patron saint of France, but how he was worshipped by the French, this can be traced back to the third century AD, when France was still Gaul under Roman rule, people's beliefs still belong to the gods of Olympus, Christianity is just heresy, and with the gradual increase of Christians, the attitude of the priests and officials in Rome has changed from ignoring indifference to being harsh and fierce, and all those who believe in God will be arrested and punished or even executed, unless they are willing to admit their mistakes and convert to the god of Olympus。
Saint-Denis was originally a judge in Athens, since his conversion 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 followers, he became the first bishop of Paris, the Roman governor arrested them, Saint-Denis was thrown into the lion's cage and crucified, but he never gave in, rebelled against God, in 261 AD, Saint-Denis and his followers were beheaded.
The place where they were executed is now called Montmartre, and in this time it was called the Hill of the Martyrs, but they did not die there, because on the second day of the execution, when the people tried to collect their bodies, they were shocked to find that the three headless bodies slowly stood up, picked up their heads, walked to the stream not far away, washed the heads, and then lifted them high and walked to the north, until they reached a small village about two fats away, before they fell down and died.
They were buried there, and many years later, a huge church was built on the spot, this church is the church of Saint-Denis, and it is also one of the most familiar churches of the French royal family, because all the royal family members are buried there, starting with Clovis I, Louis went twice, once to escort his father Louis XIII, and once to make a complete end with the former Duke of Orleans, Gaston- The royal mausoleum is not gloomy, with sunlight during the day, candles and torches at night, and there are no heavy sarcophagi here, only cold marble statues, neatly dressed and wearing crowns, lying calmly above the mausoleum, with their hands folded, as if they were making a final prayer - Queen Anne said to Louis that she would be here in the future, and Louis would be too, and Philippe would be no exception, and they would 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. At that time, Queen Anne smiled and longed.
Louis endured for a long time before he said, perhaps Saint-Denis did not intend to sit with the descendants of those who tortured and then killed him, and what was the matter of making a saint martyred in Paris the patron saint of France? Anyway, he probably would do that, and he can only say that the reason why saints can become saints is because they are willing to repay their grievances with virtue, and in addition, the reason why saints can only be canonized after death is not to bully the dead to not speak?
It is difficult to make public all kinds of slanders of the general road, but this is what makes the former Bishop Mazarin feel gratified, if there is anyone in a country who should not be the most religious, it is probably the king, if anyone wants to object, go to Louis VII, Philip II, Louis IX (Saint Louis), who did countless day jobs in the Crusades...... Although it may be said that at least Philip II took advantage of the chaos (no, no, no, no, not to the infidels, but to Richard the Lionheart), these benefits in no way compensated for the losses of France.
It was a long writing, but the real prayer was only a few minutes, and Louis got up, drew a cross on his chest, and sincerely prayed that the rest of the war would be so smooth - before leaving surrounded by ministers and generals, Louis once again looked at the icon of Saint-Denis, this time the saint of the main castle of France, perhaps because he had been moved into the sun, looked less eerie, even a little kind.
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Hieron Nimis S. Bose smiled and raised the charcoal, the triptych can generally be connected or separated, but the theme must be the same way of painting, since he said Saint-Denis, it means that Saint-Denis is the subject of this triptych, Rubens sat behind the teacher, watching the old wizard on the leftmost tablet to draw the silhouette of three people, they are dressed in plain robes, but their heads have a circle of light belonging to the saint, that is, what Bose wants to depict should be the scene of Saint-Denis leaving Athens, the other two are his followers, Saint-Denis makes a gesture of prayer, one hand pointing to the sky, indicating that he has heard God's call and commandThe two men bowed their heads, crossed their arms, and made a gesture of obedience.
This subject is not quite right according to the habit of triptychs, because generally speaking, the middle picture of the triptych is the gaochao of the whole picture, which is the most important scene - let other painters plan it, the far left should be the scene of Saint-Denis preaching, the middle is the scene of Saint-Denis holding his head, and the right side is the saint ascending to heaven and erecting a church on the ground - according to Bosch's current plan, then the main canvas in the middle may be used to depict the scene of the saint's mission, and the last is the scene of the saint showing the miracles......
Immediately, Rubens laughed, he was really stupid, and how could his paintings be calming and appeased, if that was the case, that his paintings were cursed and led to hell.
After thinking about this, Rubens's expression became much more indifferent, and then, in a surprising move, Geronimis-Bosch did not finish all the sketches in one go, "Go and mix the paint, Rubens," he said, and as he changed a charcoal pencil, he began to draw the sketch in a more delicate way.
Although eggs are used in tempera paints, there are three methods, using whole eggs, egg yolks and whipped egg whites, each with its own merits, but Rubens does not need to choose, because the paint used in Bosch's painting is always made from the toad's egg, that is, the egg it carries on its body, and this egg must be alive before grinding.
He grabbed a toad from the crucible beside him, which was large enough for a baby's face, and it was a skill to do so, because he couldn't break the eggs hidden in the skin on the toad's back, and he held the toad with one hand, and with the other he held up a very small blunt-headed silver fork, and began to pick the eggs off the toad's skin one by one, which was a job of great eyesight and skill, and the toad wriggled and struggled restlessly, and perhaps it also realized the tragic fate of its child— The eggs, along with the white venom secreted from the toad's skin, landed on the mortar, which is also common elsewhere, and was used to mash pepper and garlic — Rubens used to mash toad eggs, and it was a bad feeling to mash this round, greasy thing, but fortunately he got used to it, and it probably only took a few minutes or less.
The next step is to pour the toner into the "egg wash".
To say that the toner is also different from the one used by mortals, such as yellow, most of the powder used by mortals is realgar powder, but in the hands of wizards, it is the gall of a cow, and in Bosch, it is the gall of women who were waterboarded, and the funny thing is that many of them come from the hands of the priests, who hold witch trials for people without authorization, and those women, whether innocent or not, are sunk into rivers or lakes, and when they float up, it means that she is tempted and sheltered by the devil, and she is innocent and innocent when she sinks— They may have had too many children because the devil gives witches strong fertility, maybe they don't have children because she is the devil's lover, maybe they are ugly, because God uses this to warn people to stay away from her, maybe they are beautiful, because they want to seduce others with their seductive countenance, maybe they are old, because they have lost their youth, they turn their backs on God and make vows to the devil, maybe they are young, because it is ignorance, they are easily led to hell by the devil - The only thing they had in common was a bitter gall soaked in hatred and fear, brown on the outside and yellow on the inside.
Cyan-blue, this dazzling color is often used by mortals to depict the sky and the robes of the Virgin, it is supposed to come from the powder of lapis lazuli, but here in Bosch, what comes out of the bottle are the shriveled eyes, how beautiful the eyes of the pair of daisies, blue sky, and lake blue were when the master was alive, and now they are like shrunken dried apricots, but when they are ground, the charm of that blue is like a huge whirlpool, and it is impossible to extricate oneself.
Deep purple, this pigment is so precious to mortals, 250,000 conches only the size of a needle can extract half an ounce of dye, only enough to dye a robe, in the past, only the emperor of Rome was qualified to wear it, but for wizards, especially dark wizards like Bose, it is not difficult to get them, as long as you go to someone who has been poisoned by mandala, aconite or aconite, extract his bone marrow, you can get this gorgeous purple.
The bright red is either cinnabar or cochineal that has only been found in recent years, but the shamans only have to look for the mother who has lost her child, or the girl who has lost her lover, or the young man who has lost her best friend, and their tears of pain are mixed with alum, which is the most brilliant red, which is the color of painstaking efforts.
There is only one color that wizards share with mortals, and that is mummy brown.
One might ask how much effort and time it takes to raise these toners, but ahem, a wizard like Bose doesn't have the patience to wait - whatever color he can get at any time.
If one were to look at the sketch of Jeronymus, it would be difficult to see anything, but only the most attentive and knowledgeable could see that Saint-Denis had a sad countenance, his prayer fingers curled unnaturally, his hand towards the sky more like a shield from the punishment coming from above, and the two attendants, one looking at the shadow of Saint-Denis, and the other at a dove that had landed on a branch, and a snake sticking out of its tail feathers, and the snake made a gesture of devouring.
When the final draft was finished, more details could be found, Saint-Denis was on the road to death, his feet covered with shackled weeds, his robes cast horned shadows, the sky was not a clear blue or white, but a crimson like twilight— One of his attendants smiled, his smile full of strange malice, and he and the other man were close to Saint-Denis's body, only one hand was exposed, and the other hand was hidden behind Saint-Denis's back, as if urging, as if preparing for the murder.
"You do the rest of the work. "Yellowniemis—Rubens hesitates, "I'm not good at cursing. "That's true, Rubens was a wizard and a wizard, but he was able to pour emotion and magic into his paintings, but his paintings rarely made people crazy or confused—except for the sensitive, who might be horrified or confused by the emotions that Rubens left in the paintings.
"That's what I want. Jeromenes said, listening to the teacher's unquestioning tone, Rubens had to sit down in front of the drawing board, tempera is made of many light paints, layer by layer, Jeromenes and Rubens have different styles, and thinking that this triptych is likely to be unfavorable to the King of France, Rubens hesitated- Although he might have displeased the teacher, he did his best to bring some warm, kind thoughts and feelings through the tip of the pen, and Saint-Denis's bitter countenance became sad but firm, as if he knew his end but was not afraid, and his fingers became richer and softer, so that they looked at least not a claw, but the hand of a saint, and the expression of his attendant was no longer so sinister, but only a little silly and naïve.
He peered at the teacher's face as he painted, and he thought Jeromenes would be annoyed, but the latter just smiled and didn't say a word.