Kassel, January 28 1500.

— “My lord, this is the portrait that has been commissioned for ye”. Said the servant, holding his hands tightly.

The portrait was more or less reminiscent of Wilhelm. He looked at it once, and then twice. He saw the rosy cheeks of the oil painting, his long and round nose, and then on the long hair and the beady eyes. Maybe it looked like Wilhelm when he was twenty-five, maybe twenty-three - that was a long time ago.

— “It shall do”. Said the Margrave, exhausted of servants perambulating his estates, day in and day out.

From a large oak door at the end of the hallway came the court painter, Herr Ludwig von Schweiz. A gloomy man, Ludwig often prowled the hallways when struck by the gloomy humors of a damp sky, as it had been today.

— “My liege, what do you think of the newest portrait?” Asked Ludwig, slightly hunchbacked.

— “Fine, although I do wish it had something of a sparkle to it. Is there no way to re-do it? With my eyes more fierce. Maybe we ought to try it with armor on?”

— “My liege?” Asked Ludwig, perplexed. “That would be far too expensive. It would go into the thousands of florins. Just imagine the costs alone on attempting a new style of imagery. I spent at least five years of my far-too-brief youth mastering this style. It is timeless!”

— “Perhaps it may be timeless. But what is the point, I ask, of timelessness? Shouldn’t we create new things? They’re expensive, sure, and, believe me, I am well aware that we are not the richest principality in the Empire of the Romans, but what is the point of all this wealth then?”

With his point made, and after a few extra minutes of pointless discussion, Wilhelm bid Ludwig farewell after a brief visit to the painter’s quarters, in order to ensure that everything was in order. Passing through the well-lit dining room, going out through a backdoor to the gardens and perambulating about, the Prince saw his wife brushing her hair with another maiden, a minor nobleman’s daughter who had been tutored for three brief years now - but, for some reason, every time he looked at her, he could not remember her name, often just calling her “the young lady”. At the age of nine, the child surely did not seem to notice, and “even if she did”, thought the Prince, “what harm could it do?”.

After exchanging court pleasantries, Wilhelm sat down with Yolande. A fair lady with long hair, she had been admiring the keep and the estates of this home of hers for a while now. Her belly was quite large by now, and she was expecting a child in perhaps another three months. Surely by May.

— “I think I shall name him Wilhelm. What do you think?” Asked the Prince, smiling. No doubt in his mind that the child would be a man. The House of Hesse depended on it, after his brother, aptly named Wilhelm, had contracted syphilis and left to the small town of Spangenberg. — “It’s wonderful, darling”. Yolande said it almost automatically. She, of course, was more than happy to carry this child, the future of a dynasty, but she truly did not care whether the child was a boy or a girl. She desired many children, and one of them would be a male heir, doubtlessly so.

— “Yolande, may I ask your opinion on something?” Which piqued the attention of the Landgravine. She rarely was asked questions that were not related to flowers, or clothing, or the organization of the keep for ceremonies. Lifting her brows up, she asked what it was.

— “Maybe not this year, but I was thinking … What do you think of us funding a workshop here? Like an artistic one, for people to come in and paint whatever they want”. Said Wilhelm, his mind racing through the possibilities.

— “I think that’s certainly an idea, darling. But why? What’s the point of it?”

— “Not sure yet.” Replied Wilhelm. “I think that, well, we ought to foster new things, shouldn’t we? New ways of fighting our enemies, new ways of building structures, that…that seems to be the whole purpose of all the peoples in the world, to find out about new things. So I was here thinking, right, after seeing the unveiling of my new portrait: why not make something new? Mine, my father’s and my grandfather’s portraits are essentially the same. By God Almighty, I’m far too certain that a stranger would not be able to tell the difference between us!” The Prince said, exasperated.

He took a moment to think, caressing his soft beard.

— “So I think that we should invite people here to just paint. Paint for painting’s sake. We buy them some materials and we set them out to do new things, experiment. Maybe see if they can make a new style, paint something pretty, something pleasant. If it pleases the eye, we could even have them make paintings for our noble folk, our barons. Florins can be made, we create something new, I think it’s a wonderful conciliation, don’t you?”

The pitch was made, and Yolande shared her thoughts on it. She believed it was a nice idea, although one that required careful attention to who was brought to Hesse. Many a scoundrel would be eager to swindle a lord for a quick coin, but Wilhelm was inspired nonetheless. With the - perceived - tacit support of his wife, the Prince set out into the keep once more, eagerly seeking Ludwig.