Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

[cahn]

All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

Comments

Portrait of MT in Fritz’ bedroom

[selenak]

Well, if Wellington can have a nude statue of Napoleon in his house...

I think it’s quite likely that Fritz wanted to troll people, and possibly (while she was still alive) MT herself if reports get to her, and yes, period portraits look very similar to us, what with the wigs and the beauty ideals needing to be observed, but just for the sake of argument: MT was actually one of the few people whose portrait would have been recognizable to people within the HRE. Partly due to Fritz. Because those portraits of her and her family were a loyalty declaration, just as Fritz’ portraits were. For example, recently I was at the castle in Würzburg, which at the relevant era was held by the Schönborn family (v important Catholic family through several centuries all over the HRE and there’s a cardinal von Schönborn in Vienna even now), and sure enough, there was MT, both young and old, and Joseph (younger), too. For non-nobles, there were prints.

Now how much those portraits actually resembled the person - shrug. (Though I’d say Wilhelmine’s pastel is recognizable MT if you’ve seen some of her other portraits.) But they certainly had created an iconic look, identifiable to the casual observer.

(BTW, I was v amused at Fritz complimenting MT on her complexion in the crack fic, ,because, Cahn, that’s another insult if you consider the Prussian ambassador wrote to Fritz she was ruining her face with all that outdoorsy stuff. (Remember the period ideal for female skin was soft, white and rosy, not tanned and wind-weathered!)

Re: Portrait of MT in Fritz’ bedroom

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, I was thinking about the recognizability of portraits and of MT specifically, and came to the conclusion that while you might recognize an iconic portrait of MT, if you glance at a portrait you don't recognize, are you definitively going to be able to say it's *not* a, say, 15-yo MT, if an authority on the subject says it is? Cognitive science suggests otherwise; multiple experiments have shown that people will believe all sorts of things about what they're looking at if you put them on the spot and tell them something confidently, even if it's contrary to what they actually know or find plausible.

Now, of course Fritz may actually have had a portrait of MT in his room! For trolling, for gloating, for coming across as superior for having defeated such a worthy ally and for treating her with such "respect", for many reasons. But I also like the idea of him testing people's gullibility. :P

(BTW, I was v amused at Fritz complimenting MT on her complexion in the crack fic, ,because, Cahn, that’s another insult if you consider the Prussian ambassador wrote to Fritz she was ruining her face with all that outdoorsy stuff. (Remember the period ideal for female skin was soft, white and rosy, not tanned and wind-weathered!)

Indeed, that was intended to be an insult on more than one level, disguised as a compliment. :D I had fun with that one.

Re: Portrait of MT in Fritz’ bedroom

[cahn]

ahahaha, yes, now that I have read the Prussian ambassador's report, that bit of the crackfic is 500% more funny :D