I stand corrected, in the hollow of a tree

A brother of mine sent in the following correction to my admittedly sloppy, rounded up, calculations regarding the housing amenities of Blessed Waldo:

A tree with a circumference of 50 feet has an interior area, assuming walls
of zero thickness, of 198.9437 square feet (not 220 square feet). Assuming
a more realistic wall thickness of 2 feet, the area of a hollow tree 50 feet
in circumference would be 111.51 square feet, which is a little small even
by New York standards. (Of course, since saints live to suffer, so the
smaller, the better, of course!)

Even if the walls were only a foot thick, the interior space would be
152.0853 square feet, and the tree’s structural soundness might be in question.

Just something to ponder.

BTW, the only way the inside of a hollow tree with a circumference with 50
feet could have an area of 220 square feet would be for the walls to be
infinitely thin and for π to be equal to 3.4741, which is 110.5841% of the
real value.

Bavo, Bosch and a Hollow Tree Trunk

Like many people we know, Saint Bavo of Ghent (589-654) led what Butler understated as an “irregular” life before he cleaned up his act, that is to say, was converted by a stirring sermon of Saint Amand. Actually, Bavo’s early misdeeds are worse than those of anyone I know: he actually sold his servants into slavery. Pretty unforgivable, you would say?

But as we have seen time and time again, a checkered past, a feckless youth, a prodigal adolescence, even a criminal record, can all be expunged by a timely conversion.

Which would explain why Bavo’s conversion makes such an excellent subject for painting, such as Rubens’ huge painting in the cathedral in Ghent. (For art’s sake, rather than verisimilitude, Rubens includes several semi-nude bodies in all sorts of torqued positions.)

But the painting I want to mention, because it is so unexpected, is Bavo’s singular appearance, in grisaille, on the exterior right wing of Hieronymus Bosch’s Triptych of the Last Judgment. (The one in Vienna. Not Bosch’s only Last Judgment, not by a long shot.)

The falcon on his left wrist, the spurs and elegant robes are all emblematic of the luxurious life led by Bavo, pre-conversion. Conversely, the open purse in his right hand signifies the alms he dispensed so graciously to the poor, post-conversion. The midget, the amputated (or mummified) foot, the child balancing a bowl atop his head, these are all pure Boschian enigmas. I read that both the foot and the bowl on the infant’s head appear in Bosch’s Lisbon Triptych, in a sinister context.

The other thing you must know about Saint Bavo is that after some time in the monastery he decided he wanted more of a hermetic life, and took up residence in the hollow trunk of a large tree. One hopes it was a very large tree. Since hollow trees are favorite places for a swarm of bees, I wonder whether he had to evict 60,000 odd honeybees and their queen before settling in.