I Am Louis XIV

Speaking of Saint-Denis, he may be the most prominent figure in France next to the Holy Son of God and the Virgin Mary. There are his icons in many churches in Paris, and his characteristics are very distinctive-Louis still doesn't quite understand that this era Why did people always let the saints carry the instruments of torture and the mutilated body with them, like Jesus always carrying the cross and wearing the crown of thorns, St. Agatha always holding the pliers (Roman emperor ordered the soldiers to hurt her breasts with pincers), St. Bartholomew was holding a dagger (he was stripped of all his skin)...but even St. Bartholomew was intact, at least not showing the stripped Miserable, but only Saint Denis, a saint without a head, and above his icon, above his neck, is a circular holy light. 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 can be traced back to the third century AD, when France was still Gaul under Roman rule, and people’s beliefs still belonged to The gods of Olympus, Christianity is just heresy, and with the increasing number of Christians, the attitude of the priests and officials in Rome has changed from ignorance and indifference to harshness and cruelty. Anyone who believes in God will be punished. Those who were caught were punished or even killed, unless they were willing to admit their mistakes and convert to the gods 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. The first bishop of Paris, the administrator of Rome arrested them. Saint Denis was thrown into a lion cage and crucified, but he never surrendered 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 Hill of the Martyrs, but they were not buried there, because on the second day of the execution, when people tried to collect the corpses for them, they were horrified. Suddenly, the three headless bodies stood up slowly, picked up their heads, walked to the stream not far away, washed the heads, then lifted them up high, and walked towards the north. It was not until I came to a small village about two leagues away that I 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 Church, and it is also one of the churches most familiar to the French royal family, because all members of the royal family will be buried in the There, starting from Clovis I, Louis has been there twice, once to escort his father Louis XIII, and once to make a thorough settlement with Gaston, the former Duke of Orleans - the royal tomb is not gloomy, and there is sunshine in the daytime , There are candles and torches at night, there is no heavy sarcophagus here, only a cold marble statue, they are neatly dressed, wearing a crown, lying peacefully on the top of the mausoleum with their eyes closed, their hands folded, as if they are doing their last prayers—— —Queen Anne told Louis that she will be here in the future, 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, they will ascend to heaven and sit with God and saints .

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

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

In short, it is really difficult to make all kinds of slanders of Louis public, but this is what made the former Bishop Mazaran feel relieved. If there is one who should be the least pious in a country, 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, at least Philip II Looting (no, no, no, not to the heretics, but to Richard the Lionheart) got some benefits, but these benefits definitely could not make up for the loss of France.

Although it was lengthy to write, the real prayer only took a few minutes. Louis got up, drew a sign of the cross on his chest, and sincerely prayed that the subsequent battle would also go smoothly——before leaving surrounded by ministers and generals, Louis stared at the icon of Saint-Denis again. This time, the saint of the main castle of France—perhaps because he was moved into the sunlight—looked less gloomy, and even a little benign.

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Hieronymus Bosch raised the charcoal with a smile. Generally, triptychs can be connected or separated, but the painting method must have the same theme. Since he said Saint Denis, it means Saint Denis. Ni is the subject of this triptych. Sitting behind his teacher, Rubens watched as the elderly wizard drew the outlines of three figures on the leftmost panel. The halo of the saint, that is to say, what Bosch wants to describe should be the scene when St. Denis left Athens. The other two are his followers. Hearing God's call and order, the two men bowed their heads, crossed their arms, and made a gesture of obedience.

This theme is not quite right according to the habit of triptychs, because generally speaking, the middle one of the triptych is the gaochao of the whole picture, which is the most important scene - let other painters plan it, and the far left should be the missionary of Saint Denis , in the middle is the scene of St. Denis holding his head, and on the right is the saint ascending to heaven, and the church is erected on the ground-according to Bosch's current plan, the main drawing board in the middle may be used to depict the scene of the saint preaching , the last scene is the scene where the saint shows his miracle...

Immediately, Rubens laughed, he was really stupid, the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch are curses and lead people to hell, in this case, how can his paintings make people calm and inspired appease.

After thinking about it this way, Rubens' expression became a lot more indifferent. Next, Hieronymus Bosch made an unexpected move. He didn't finish all the sketches in one go, "go to mix the paint Come on, Rubens," he said, switching to a charcoal pencil, and began to trace the sketch, with a finer touch.

Although eggs are all used in the paint configuration of tempera painting, there are three methods, using whole eggs, egg yolks and whipped egg whites, each with its own advantages, but Rubens did not need to make a choice, because Bosch painted The paint used has always been made of toad eggs, that is, the eggs it carries on its body. These eggs must be alive before grinding.

He casually grabbed a toad that was big enough for a baby's face from the crucible beside him. This required skill, because the eggs hidden in the skin on the toad's back could not be broken. He pressed the toad with one hand, and lifted a very The small blunt silver fork began to pick the eggs off the toad's skin one by one. This is a job that requires eyesight and skill. The toad wriggled and struggled restlessly. Maybe it also realized its weakness. The child had a miserable fate—the eggs, with the white venom secreted from the skin of the toad, fell into the mortar, which is common elsewhere, and is used to crush pepper and garlic—Rubens used to crush the eggs of the toad, It was a bad feeling to mash the round, slippery stuff, but luckily he was used to it, probably in a few minutes or less.

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

As for the color powder, it is also different from the ones used by mortals, such as yellow, most of what mortals use is realgar powder, but in the hands of wizards, it is the gall of a cow, and in Bosch's case, it is a woman who was tortured to death by water What’s ridiculous is that many of them came from the hands of priests. They held witch trials for people without authorization. Those innocent women, whether they were innocent or not, were sunk into rivers or lakes, and if they floated up, it meant that she was murdered 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 have no children, because she is the lover of the devil; maybe they are ugly, because God Mainly use this to warn people to stay away from her, maybe they are beautiful, because they rely on their charming faces to lure others to fall; maybe they are old, because it is because of the loss of youth that they will turn their backs on God and make a vow to the devil, maybe they are very young, Because of ignorance, it is easy to be led into hell by the devil—the only thing they have in common is that they have a gall soaked in hatred and fear, which is brown on the outside and yellow on the inside.

Cyan blue, this eye-catching color is often used by mortals to describe the sky and the robes of the Virgin. It should come from lapis lazuli powder, but for Bosch, what is poured out of the bottle is a shriveled eyeball. How beautiful those daisy-blue, sky-blue, lake-blue eyes were in life, now they are like shriveled dried apricots, but when ground, the charm of that blue is like A huge vortex that makes people unable to extricate themselves.

Deep purple, how precious this kind of pigment is to ordinary people. Half an ounce of dye can be extracted from 250,000 conch shells the size of a needle tip, which is only enough to dye a robe. In the past, only Roman emperors had it. They are qualified to wear, but for wizards, especially black wizards like Boss, it is not difficult to get them. Just go to someone who is poisoned by mandala, aconite or aconite, extract his bone marrow, and 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 mothers who have lost their children, or girls who have lost their lovers, or young people who have lost their best friends, their tears of pain Mixed with alum, it is the most beautiful red, which is the color of the heart.

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 collect these toners, heck, a wizard like Bosch doesn't have the patience to wait—no matter what color it is, he is available at any time.

If anyone looked at the sketches of Hieronymus, it would be difficult to see anything. Only the most careful and knowledgeable people could see that St. Denis's face was sad, his praying fingers curled unnaturally, and his hands towards the sky were even more serious. As if to block the punishment from above, one of the two attendants looked at the shadow of Saint-Denis, and the other looked at a dove that landed on a branch. A snake protruded from the dove's tail feathers, and the snake made a swallowing gesture. .

When the manuscript is finished, more details can be found. Saint-Denis is walking on the road to death, his feet are covered with weeds like shackles, his robe casts a shadow with horns, and the sky is not clear blue or white, but a crimson red like dusk——one of his attendants smiled, and the smile was full of strange malice, and he and another were close to the body of Saint-Denis, with only one hand It was exposed, and the other hand was hidden on the back of Saint-Denis, as if urging, but also as if preparing for the murder.

"You'll do the rest of the work." Hieronymus said——Rubens hesitated, "I'm not good at cursing." This is the truth. Although Rubens studied under Bosch, he was A wizard, but he can pour emotion into the picture and invest magic power, but his paintings rarely make people crazy or confused-except for those sensitive people, who may be left in the picture because of Rubens feelings of fear or hesitation.

"That's what I want." Jeromenis said. Hearing the teacher's unquestionable tone, Rubens had to sit in front of the drawing board. Rominius 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 displease the teacher, he still tries to put some warm, kind His thoughts and feelings flowed out through the tip of the pen, and Saint-Denis' original bitter face became sad but determined, as if he was aware of his own ending but was not afraid, and his fingers became more plump and soft, so it looks like At least not like a paw, but the hand of a saint, and the expression of his entourage is no longer so sinister, only a little stupid and innocent.

While he was drawing, he watched the teacher's expression. He thought Jeromenes would be angry, but the latter just smiled and said nothing.