Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 885 The Knight and the Sketch

Although in other countries, especially countries outside Europe, the "Knight of the Garter" is often introduced very tall: for example, this knight order "originated in the Middle Ages"; today the "oldest knight order" in the world ; is "Britain's highest and oldest medal", but this is not true.

First, the Order of the Garter was not founded until the middle of the fourteenth century (generally considered to be 1348); as such, it never had the opportunity to take part in the Crusades.

From a certain point of view, this knight order is not so much a knight order established by the British following the traditions of the Middle Ages, but a knight order improvised by the British in order to catch up with European fashion.

As for choosing the garter as the name of the Knights Order, it is probably because medieval knights often used things like garters to tie their weapons tightly around their bodies, so it is a symbol of bravery and combat.

The highest order in the UK is the Victoria Cross, followed by the George Cross. Although the Order of the Garter has the longest history among these three orders, it can only rank third.

What's more interesting is that although Edward III hoped to establish a knightly order that could be associated with the legendary King Arthur at the beginning, the knightly order has nothing to do with King Arthur, but is dedicated to St. George.

This knight order with only 26 members has been a symbol of the top British nobles from the beginning, and as the British national power continues to rise, this kind of medal has also been awarded to those foreign monarchs.

Even in modern times, medals began to be awarded to some British people who did not have royal blood but made outstanding contributions, such as former British Prime Minister Churchill, Mrs Thatcher and Major who belonged to the Conservative Party.

As for why this knight order has become famous today, it is purely because after those once earth-shattering knight orders in history have disappeared, the Knights of the Garter are still operating as before, so longevity is also beneficial.

Theoretically speaking, the outfits of the knights of the Garter Knights are recycled. After the knights die, they will be sent back to Windsor Castle for use by their successors.Theory and reality are often not the same thing, so there will always be some badges that will be lost to the outside world during the hundreds of years of history, and this naturally includes the set in Liang En's hands.

As for why it appeared in Southeast Asia, it may have something to do with the British king who was once the regent of the Netherlands. Because of its existence, the possibility that some cultural relics were lost to the Netherlands and brought to Asia is not small.

And just after Liang En finished appreciating the pair of extremely gorgeous badges and put them away, Nelson also found a way to open another box, but it was different from the dazzling jewelry before, and there was only a book with yellowed paper in the box. That's all.

"These seem to be some notes and sketches, what are these?" Nelson, who found that he couldn't make out the text, gave the book to Liang En after opening the book for a few glances.

"Let me have a look—" Liang En curiously took the book and flipped through it, only to find that it was written in Dutch and recorded some messy things.

The reason why it is a little messy is that part of it is a diary, and the other part is related to painting, but from the appearance, the person who recorded it is obviously in a state of excitement, so that the recorded content is scattered .

However, from the records, the two personnel were able to restore the mental journey of a not-low-level oil painting master, and at the same time confirmed that the other party should be a relatively well-known post-impressionist painter.

After flipping through the previous records, Liang En began to flip through the bound sketches at the back, and after seeing the first sketch, a painter's name immediately appeared in his mind.

In order to confirm this, he continued to turn the book backwards, and what appeared in front of him was a sketch of a vase with 15 sunflowers on it.

"It's actually him—" After seeing this sketch, Liang En realized it all at once, and when he continued to look back, he found that the remaining paintings were also very familiar.

"Why does this painting look so familiar?" Just as Liang En turned to a still life painting of a wheat field, Joan of Arc suddenly came over and said. "I seem to have seen somewhere—"

"Because this is the work of Van Gogh." Nelson said while looking at the notebook in Liang En's hand, and at this moment Liang En happened to turn the notebook to the last page, and it showed a wheat field and a crow flying on the wheat field .

"This looks a lot like Van Gogh's last work, "The Crow in the Rye." After carefully taking the notebook from Liang En, Nelson held the notebook in a pilgrimage and said, then turned his head Looking at Liang En.

"The question now is what it is, whether it is an imitation of a lover, a copy of a painter, or whether it is the work of the great painter himself."

"I'm not sure yet, but I can be sure that the author of these sketches is definitely not an ordinary author, but an artist." Liang En gave a not-so-certain answer.

"However, from an artistic point of view, at least these words are probably written by Van Gogh, because there are not many artists who can reach this level from ancient times to the present, and such artists are rarely willing to compete with artists of the same level. Same style."

For art masters like Van Gogh, even if they imitate the works of other artists except for a few people, they will try their best to bring their own style instead of pure imitation.

After mastering a large number of art cards, Liang En specially studied the stories and famous works of famous painters in history, among which Van Gogh, a famous painter, would naturally not be ignored.

In particular, he once went to the museum to get close contact with Van Gogh's works, so when he came into contact with the real thing, he can basically tell which artist the thing came from.

Of course, the most important point is that he has already done the divination, and the result of the divination told him that his previous guess was correct. The words in this book were indeed written by the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 1853, 3 - July 30, 1890), a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.Representative works include "Starry Night", Self-portrait series, Sunflower series, etc.

Van Gogh was born on March 1853, 3 in a Protestant pastor family in Zundert, a village in the Netherlands. In his early years, he worked as a staff member, a business broker, and a missionary in a mining area. Finally, he devoted himself to painting.

His early painting style was realistic, influenced by Dutch traditional painting and French realism. In 1886, he came to Paris, got acquainted with Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painters, and came into contact with Japanese Ukiyo-e works. The expansion of his vision changed his painting style dramatically.

In 1888, he came to Arles, a small town in the south of France, to create "The Suspension Bridge of Arles"; in the same year, he communicated with the painter Paul Gauguin, but due to the conflict of personalities and differences of ideas between the two, the cooperation soon failed.

Since then, Van Gogh suffered from frequent episodes of mental illness, but he still insisted on painting when he was conscious. In 1889, he created "Starry Moon Night". In July 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself at the age of 7.

(End of this chapter)