Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Image of glory and memento to passing time


Salve,
Don Gustavo, one of my Facebook friends and fellow admirer of fine Polish, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Livonian, German nobility,  their gallantry and bravery, and who is a follower of my blog as well, pointed to me something that I have not seen before.
It is the attached below an image of the Polish knight (appears to be a winged hussar), deceased AD 1596, who was immortalized by his family with an epitaph, adorned with  a truly Renaissance portrait.
The  buried hussar's name was Andrzej Kochanowski of Korwin coat of arms  Korwin .
He was the founder of  the church  where he was buried, this late  Renaissance Roman Catholic Church in Grodek, near Kozienice in Poland. Mosci pan Andrzej Kochanowski, son of Dobieslaw, was himself  a cousin of our most preeminent Renaissance  poet- Jan Kochanowski, who himself was described wearing a hussar outfit during the fabulous 1574 royal entry to King's city of Cracow ( the entry of our shortest ruling and only French monarch, Henri Valois). Perhaps one day I return to Jan and his poem 'Jezda do Mokswy'  Jezda_do_Moskwy  , that describes the famous raid by Filon Kmita of coat of arms Radwan_Sowity , Haraburda  and Krzysztof 'Thunder' Radziwill against the
Muscovy's interior during king Bathory's war with Muscovy 1577-82.

Ad rem, our pan Andrzej here has a fine Renaissance armor (note a visible gilded spur  at this armored heel) and coat of mail, while his knightly weapons,  sword and sabre, along with his shishak with red plume are at his side. He is eternally resting on the human scull, a somber remainder : memento mori, while  a finely painted hourglass has for ever reminded the viewer about the passing time -Πάντα ῥεῖ pantha rei.
This is a somber and very pious piece of art,  and this style of painting portraits of deceased to decorate their burials and soon coffins/caskets became so called Sarmatian fashion across the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in many fabulous paintings of our ancestors  Portret_trumienny_B._D._Lubomirskiej.jpg .  



ps
another drawing of mine above the text, it seems that those fabulous wild cats skins were often carried underneath the saddle, in ancient  Macedonian (vide Alexander the Great equestrian portraits) and Great Steppe warrior fashions.

4 comments:

Samuel said...

Czołem Dario!

Quite a fascinating piece of burial painting. Some time ago I had an opportunity to take pictures of a funeral-marble monument of György Serédy.... a local Hungarian magnate and military commander that has a tomb and funeral monument in our local church( Saint Egidius Basilica) in Bardejov (north-eastern Slovakia):

Info: http://vmek.niif.hu/01900/01911/html/index989.html

Pics-
overview: http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2689/upload2f.jpg

Closeup on his sabre:
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7160/upload3f.jpg

The sabre hilt with its pommel is especially interesting (a bit different that the later Polish-Hungarian type). Also notice the partial Anima cuirass.

I have some more closeups should you be interested ;-)

Cheers ,
Samuel "Samik" Beňa


P.S:
Not to bother you with this, but some (long) time ago... you've mentioned an interesting scholarly article on the Racz-Serbian horsemen:

http://dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2009/07/hello-july-is-good-month-in-my-polish.html#links

(your last post). Is it mayhap available somewhere or is there any way I could get my hands on it? :)

Dario T. W. said...

Samuel,
thanks a lot for these pictures and your commentary!
the sabre hilt is quite interesting!
I am not sure about the Anima cuirass, but what I find interesting is his helmet. Can we get a better picture of his helmet?
Recently I got a Russian book on Turkish arms and armor, and there are some interesting sabres in there, similar to this one.I daresay Seredy's has Turkish grip and pommel,while crossguard is a bit intriguing, perhaps also Turkish or improved to Hungarian/Western fashion?
I would like to publish your photos and do a little 'drawing' of sir Seredy as well. What do you think?
ps
Serbians are coming, they are just late in coming ... also my response to your Serbian hussar inquiry is coming as well in a form of separate blog entry as you have raised many valid questions , I hope soon.

Samuel said...

Cant wait for those Racowie then ;) Also Id be delighted to send more of Seredy + your drawing would be fascinating methinks !

However I have a bigger batch of them and it would be imho more convenient if I could send it to your e-mail address or some such.. uploading them via image-shack individually seems like a chore..

As to sabers , I still haven't formed a precise opinion on the matter. Its no secret that the Hungarian sabers are apparently a version of the Ottoman ones. In terms of blade shape they are close to identical (slight curve , visible yelmen). Change came somewhere in the late 16th century with the Iranian influence (if not earlier, e.g. the yelmanless shamshirs)as well as further "curving" of the blade itself. As for hilt designs... it appears that from the end of 15th century the Ottoman sabres start to divert a bit into other directions (like the "pistol" grip, mameluke style hilt etc.). To my knowledge there wasn't a typical "Hungarian-style" sabre until the mid 16th century or so (the earlier pieces were either turquescue or mounted with a schiavona style hilt.. sometimes even canted!). Check out the following links for Ottoman weapons (included are also swords of individual sultans):

http://museum.velizariy.kiev.ua/turkey/istambul_ma2/

Furthermore check also this splendid picture of Mehmed Fatih Sultan weaponry (Second Half of 15th century iirc, kudos to user Gryffindor!)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Armoury_Topkapi_Istanbul_(27).JPG

You can see his Tuck/Koncerz as well as the slightly curved saber(The earliest preserved Ottoman swords to my knowledge). The hilt bears quite a resemblance to that of Seredys though the Seredy sabre has a bit longer qullions (some lingering knightly tradition perhaps?)as well as a round pommel instead of an octagonal one.

Additionally to your Russian book it could be interesting to get a hold on "Kardok" (Sword/s) a Hungarian book by Lugosi József-Temesváry Ferenc. From what ive heard/read it has a plenty of fine imagery;)

Looking forward for your reply/further articles

Cheers,
Samuel

Samuel said...

Cant wait for those Racowie then ;) Also Id be delighted to send more of Seredy + your drawing would be fascinating methinks !

However I have a bigger batch of them and it would be imho more convenient if I could send it to your e-mail address or some such.. uploading them via image-shack individually seems like a chore..

As to sabers , I still haven't formed a precise opinion on the matter. Its no secret that the Hungarian sabers are apparently a version of the Ottoman ones. In terms of blade shape they are close to identical (slight curve , visible yelmen). Change came somewhere in the late 16th century with the Iranian influence (if not earlier, e.g. the yelmanless shamshirs)as well as further "curving" of the blade itself. As for hilt designs... it appears that from the end of 15th century the Ottoman sabres start to divert a bit into other directions (like the "pistol" grip, mameluke style hilt etc.). To my knowledge there wasn't a typical "Hungarian-style" sabre until the mid 16th century or so (the earlier pieces were either turquescue or mounted with a schiavona style hilt.. sometimes even canted!). Check out the following links for Ottoman weapons (included are also swords of individual sultans):

http://museum.velizariy.kiev.ua/turkey/istambul_ma2/

Furthermore check also this splendid picture of Mehmed Fatih Sultan weaponry (Second Half of 15th century iirc, kudos to user Gryffindor!)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Armoury_Topkapi_Istanbul_(27).JPG

You can see his Tuck/Koncerz as well as the slightly curved saber(The earliest preserved Ottoman swords to my knowledge). The hilt bears quite a resemblance to that of Seredys though the Seredy sabre has a bit longer qullions (some lingering knightly tradition perhaps?)as well as a round pommel instead of an octagonal one.

Additionally to your Russian book it could be interesting to get a hold on "Kardok" (Sword/s) a Hungarian book by Lugosi József-Temesváry Ferenc. From what ive heared/read it has a plenty of fine imagery;)

Looking forward for your reply/further articles

Cheers,
Samuel