Who will cook my supper, Tom?
My Week 35 of WolfCrawl
On the table Week 35
The Vanity of Kings
Royal Calves
Gloom over the kitchen
Eustache may have caused Cromwell a lot of trouble with the Mary rumour, but he invites him for a glass of excellent Rhenish wine as compensation. I think that´s fair.
What did we have this week: The smell of apples from Kent on Wyatt's papers (either the cartload of apples Cromwell got from Wyatt a long time ago was that good, that Cromwell can´t forget them or Wyatt stores his paper in the cellar with the apples), jellies and fruits roasted in honey for the king. And Henry´s face turns as pink as a Easter veal at the mention of Reginald Pole
As Cromwell ponders the enlargement and expansion of Mortlake's kitchens, sculleries and pantries, memories wash to the surface: The Eel Boy. ‘ Like the eel boy, they will understand that if Thomas Cromwell says, ‘You did it,’ you did it. Mark Smeaton was also made to understand this: 'Master Secretary, will you tell me again what my confession must be?’
Boy selling fish by an unknown artist, c. 1620
And again and again memories of Wolsey: how beautiful it was when the Cardinal’s kicthens were still running at full speed: ‘the buffet was stacked with gold and silver plate, when meat was slapped and seared, fruit chopped and skewered and basted in butter, and all the air perfumed with scorching and sweetness.’ Then the expulsion of the Cardinal from his home. On the first night there was only an egg dish prepared by Cromwell himself for the Cardinal in the new cold and desolate refuge.
‘Suffolk being smoked like a herring, from the year 1529 and every winter till now, unto the ending of the world.’
Thomas Cromwell, seven years later, still pleased that he persuaded Suffolk to take over Wolsey's completely incompetent chimney sweep.The Vanity of Kings
King Henry is not like us, we have learnt. A king is made of different material, floats in other spheres, they are masters of their own elevation, and the people around Henry should never forget that.
But Henry was not alone in his self-aggrandisement and vanity, the other two were no different, if I look at the two paintings below.
The Trinity is depicted at the top, with Mary and John the Baptist below on the left and Emperor Charles V with his wife and son Philip II and Charles V's daughters in the foreground on the right, all surrounded by angels. To be on the safe side, Charles also has the crown with him in the kingdom of heaven so that everyone there knows who they are dealing with. But at least the Father and Son depiction of God and Jesus has not been mirrored by moving Philip II to the left-hand side. So a little bit of restraint has been maintained… (And they are also shown in their shrouds.)
For my part, I identify strongly with the man on the left, who doesn't care about any of this because he's completely absorbed in his book. I feel you, Bookworm.
La Gloria by Titian, between 1551 and 1554
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And in the following painting, the French King Francis I. slips into holy spheres as St John the Baptist himself1. Francis, really.
Portrait of François I as St John the Baptist by Jean Clouet, 1518
However, if Cromwell were to commission a similar painting, it would have probably resemble this masterpiece by van Eyck: Nicholas Rolin (Chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy Philipp, the Good) praying before the Jesus and Mary. At eye level, not shown further down, no saint in between as an intermediary2.
Cromwell is at the peak of his power and correspondingly self-confident, but at the same time he is already on the edge of quicksand.
Madonna and Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck, c. 1435
The Royal Calves
‘…when the young Henry thrust a leg forth from his gown and invited the French ambassador to admire his calf. ‘Has your king a leg like that?, he asked. ‘Tell me, has he?’3 Since Henry used to be so proud of his calves, let's take a closer look at the royal calves.
The shoes of the French king, well. They are unfortunate. I can see Eustache smirking in the background.
Emperor Charles V., the dancer
Our show-off King Henry VIII.
This round goes to Emperor Charles V
The parrot, what's it doing in the picture? It's a bit puzzling to me, according to an interpretation I found for parrots as a symbol (in: https://www.theomag.de/82/am435.htm) : In an early Christian scripture , we find that just as parrots learn and repeat the words of men, so men should repeat and follow the words of Christ and the apostles.
Bart van Loo, Burgund. Das verschwundene Reich p.338 (Title of the English edition: The Burgundians. A Vanished Empire)
Chapter Salvage p. 116
The calf line up is hilarious. Thank you for that :)