Fat Gret

For Information about Günter Grass please click on Link in Text

Guenter Grass
The Flounder
© by Guenter Grass

Fat Gret - Abbess Margarete Rusch, The Flounder, Guenter Grass

Fat Gret,
a Womans Skirt for the Knight of the Sad Shape ...
57,1" x 31,9"

his is the second painting inspired by The Flounder
by Guenter Grass, I was overwhelmed with pictures in my head while reading.
Fat Gret is abbess in a convent at a time where nuns fled the convents. Because of her way to lead the convent in a worldly fashion, the nuns were willing to stay within the order.
Gret is the daughter of blacksmith Peter Rush, who was one of the leaders of the rebellious guilds uprising against the patrician council in Danzig in 1526. A court of aldermen sentenced the six ring leaders to death by beheading, including Peter Rusch. He was imprisoned in the Stockturm of Danzig and his daughter served him the last meal of peppered tripe before he was executed the next day.
Because Gret was a person of some influence, she invited guests to her father's dungeon for an early evening meal.
Highly placed persons accepted her invitation. The autocratic head of the patrician, the abbot Jeschke of the Oliva monastery, mayor Ferber and the executioner Ladewig.
For this last supper she is riding to town on a pig, but it was me who let her ride mostly naked. I thought it would be appropriate, because she suffocated one of the man with her fat body making love to him as revenge.
Grass' novel The Flounder is a never ending source of inspiration for me.

Peter Rusch sat in his chains and shed a few tears for his last supper. Laden right and left with the kettle and the empty beer keg, his daughter resumed her mumbling on her way out: "You'll soon be out of your misery now. You'll soon be a lot better off. So stop worrying.
Your Gret will settle up with them. It may take time, but I'll fix them good."
Then Mother Rusch admonished her father to hold his curly gray head erect the next day and not to fling curses at anyone whomsoever. He should kneel unbowed before the executioner. He could rely on her vengeance. The taste of it would linger in her mouth like Indian pepper. She wouldn't forget. No, she wouldn't forget.