International Women's Day

[medievalrosalie]

I love this painting, I really do. I've often wondered what the gentlemen was reading. It appears to be a letter, but might be any number of things. Perhaps disturbing news from a neighbouring property. A contract. A declaration of war.

We know that in the 15th century Paston letters, a mother, Agnes Paston, wrote most urgently to her husband to procure fabric of 

'a godely blew or ellys a bryghte sanggueyn [red]’

for a wedding dress for her prospective daughter-in-law and in my heart I feel this is the face of a man who has been sent to the marketplace for cloth which must be exactly the right thing or There Will Be Consequences. Failing at obtaining the correct fabric for a new dress might well be an act of domestic war.

The image is also perfect for a very disappointed single dude who had hoped that International Women's Day meant that he might finally get one.

Not this time, sorry. Not this time.