A great longing to eat apples

My Week 12 of WolfCrawl

• On the table week 12

• A 16th century bathroom

• My present for Cromwell

A great longing to eat apples

Pregnant Anne develops a craving for apples, which is a bit unfortunate, because it reminded me instantly of Cromwell´s comment about the rare case of apple blossoms in January. As rare as a son for the king. Cromwell thinks not eating cold fruit and fish might bring a royal son. Um, no. Balthasar van der Ast - Still-Life with Apple Blossoms (detail),1635

Wikimedia Commons

We can trace the rise of Cromwell through the painting of the Easter eggs. Initially they were painted with Wolsey, then with the king, and now the household is so sure of Cromwell's position and importance that they paint him on the eggs. But they do not flatter him; they prefer the lifelike depiction like Holbein.

Otherwise, as always, we have a busy Thurston who has to cook Easter dinner for a hundred people. Gardiner is still salivating over the loss of his strawberry fields. The pheasant parceled inside a chicken inside a goose I hope to see at the Coronation banquet and not like this week mentioned by Frith in the context of More´s hunting him.

“I wonder what fish this purports to be?” Cranmer, 25th of January 1533

In the chapter ‘Three card trick’ Bonvisi asks More at diner ‘you are looking at your herring as if you hate it’ to which More replies ‘There is nothing wrong with the herring.’ Later on Cromwell imagines ‘And there sits Brother Martin Luther, greasy and fat, glowering at them all, and spitting out his fish bones.” This week we have Cranmer looking at his saltfish wondering what this actually is.

If I interpret the fish as a Christian symbol, indeed as the church itself, then these three reactions are interesting. More who ultimately considers the church to be infallible. Luther tearing down the church, gutting it of everything that in his view was not legitimised by the Bible. And Cranmer, who doesn't quite know what they are creating here, what it will be. Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Big Fish Eat Little Fish, 1556

Wikimedia Commons

A 16th century bathroom

This is the bathroom of Philippine Welser¹, who was married to the nephew of Charles V. Archduke Ferdinand, at Ambras Castle from the second half of the 16th century. With tiled stove for cosy warmth, wall frescoes and seating in the bathtub.

©KHM-Museumsverband, Schloss Ambras

©KHM-Museumsverband, Schloss Ambras

My present for Cromwell

One of my favorite scenes this week was Cromwell at his desk, how he wants nothing between the paper and his hands, how he even takes off his rings². I think he loves to write including the physical side- the feeling of the paper, how the ink flows over the paper³. So if I were to give Cromwell anything, it would be this beautiful writing set for his desk. Writing set by Wenzel Jamnitzer, silver, ca. 1560/1570

©KHM-Museumsverband

1. more about Philippine Welser and Archduke Ferdinand in the post “We had not even finished our diner” chapter “Valentine Special”

2. I know there is also something dark in the scene e.g. the fist, not longer hidden in a glove. The knife from his youth, if you like, he can now replace it with what he writes. But I'll ignore that for now.

3. I have that feeling for example when I'm gardening, when I need to touch the soil and the plants directly. I have to work without gardening gloves, regardless of the consequences. After pruning the roses in spring, my hands look like I've been fighting with Marlinspike and five of his friends.