Monday, July 4, 2011

Unfinished Polish 'pancerny' cavalryman

Salve,
a while ago I was drawing and painting illustrations for a book   wanax.pl biala-cerkiew-23-25-ix-1651 on the battle of Biała Cerkiew, presently Ukraine, between the armies of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and rebellious Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Khanate Tatars, and this acrylic painting was left unfinished. It purports to show a 'pancerny' - mailed cavalryman of the mid XVII century, I abandoned it for many reasons...
Perhaps it is worth noting here that prior to AD 1648 these national cavalry units were known as ''kozackie chorągwie'' (cossack banners), where soldierly was drawn mostly from middle and lower szlachta (nobility), and that they changed their name from ''kozackie'' to ''pancerny'' (''armoured'') during the Great Cossacks Rebellion of 1648, without changing their organization, armament and protective gear.   The bloody events of the Cossack Uprising, the Deluge, Polish-Russian war and then  fratricidal war between the ing and Lubomirski caused the significant reduction of the winged hussars and the rise of these cavalrymen known a 'pancerny' within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth armies. In order to improve the offensive weaponry of these banners, especially since the Polish military doctrine always favored  charge at gallop during an engagement,  the pancerny companies were ordered to equip themselves with  a shorter and lighter lance - 'rohatyna' or 'dzida', and with that lance they marched into XVII century and eventually became National cavalry and  turned into the famous  lance wielding ''uhlans''...

No comments: