Thursday, February 28, 2019

Husaria - sketches -on Paczki Day

Salvete Omnes,
today is Fat Thursday and in Polish culture today one must eat pączki ( Polish doughnuts ) - :) more the better - like those in this picture.

... and also today the good month of Luty  (February) ends so to finish off this not a bad month I am sharing several reworked sketches or sketches in process of being reworked.
 
the theme is the famous Pastorius engraving showing a winged hussar with his lance lowered to strike and the end of his lance rests in the tok (lance boot) attached to the pommel of the saddle with a leather strap.


Nota bene my friend Radoslaw Sikora's book on husaria is selling well throughout Poland - being a bestseller.

Valete

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Iron Tail - Buffalo Bill's Show etc

 
Salvete Omnes,

it has been a long while since we visited any Plains Indians and their horses.
meantime I have been listening to some audio books on the subject of Buffalo Bill's Show etc, and started reading one of the archive.org books on Buffalo Bill and his life
 
(plenty of some very interesting details about horses, horsemanship, hunting and adventure etc in the American West during the second half of XIX century).

On Wiki Commons there is a good collection of photos showing one very handsome elder Lakota named Iron Tail, who was both participant of the Buffalo Bill's Show and face of the American Indian Head nickel.
 
Iron Tail or Sinte Maza (1842/50-1916)was a Teton Lakota, of the Oglala tribe, and perhaps participated in some fighting against the US Army during the wars 1866-77. He went to Canada with Sitting Bull and later on, upon return joined the shows and thus he became famous as the most recognizable of the Buffalo Bill's Show performers, traveling widely in the US and in Europe. After the demise of the Buffalo Bill's Show went on to perform in other shows, all the way until his death in 1916.

 Being a traditionalist and elder he was interviewed and provided valuable information about the Akicita warrior society (here about warrior societies , a bit simplified but passable)  by Richard Nines in 1911(James Walker, Lakota Society, pp.32-34 ).

 He became even more famous for his profile, having sat for a portrait done by the NYC sculptor James Earle Frase.

Sadly he lost his son during a crash on the way to join him at the Buffalo Bill's Show.
 
He finished his days performing

 
with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show.


with the demise of the wild west shows and refusal of the reservation agents to let them perform in the growing Hollywood movie industry, most of the Plains people were resigned to eke a meager life within their windswept reservations, living on small allotments divided many times over,  devoid of purpose and losing their culture. The XX century had not been kind to the Plains Indian peoples.
Valete!

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 Johannes Ledentu continued


Salvete Omnes,
continuing from the last post : Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 by Johannes Ledentu











and master Johanes included some shepherds with their flocks

valete!

Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 Johannes Ledentu

Salvete Omnes,
The Austrian National Library ( Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ) holds a number of drawings, in two bound volumes, by Johannes Ledentu (here a little biography of this master cartographer, considered a Hungarian and Croatian one at the same time) showing various fortresses, strongholds and castles of the Royal Hungary (part of the Kingdom of Hungary held by the Hamburgs), more precisely the Hungarian-Slavonian borderlands of AD 1639.
I first saw these amazingly detailed drawings via facebook and then finally in a large and very enjoyable size on the very Austrian Library website.

I corralled some of the horsemen from the drawings,I am especially interested in the marching army, including various carriage (Hungarian kosc included ) and wagons
 
  see the spare horses and lancers marching
 
and trumpeters for the lancer banner
 
 the circular array of horse banners and infantry



The drawings show great deal of the lance-welding Hungarian horsemen aka Hungarian hussars.




hunters with falcons
 
finally a grim reality of the time - capital punishment - by impalement

more in the next post
Valete!

ps
 some of the strongholds are subject to articles available on line - eg this one on the Sadtwar castle,[Hungarian language], or castle Mareck (Marchegg)

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Durer, chivalry, horses et al

Salvete Omnes,
I love works by Albrecht Durer, long time ago I used to spend days looking at his art, copied some and just enjoyed many books about his art. Studying at the university setting allowed for countless hours in the art collection at the campus library, and living in NYC give one constant access to wonder collections of the NYC Public Library, MET libraries or some other museum libraries.


Wiki Commons and other digital project allow us to enjoy and study these images in often amazing detail without going to a museum or library, thus we can get so close to the image that no paper publication or museum visit made possible.
 
From time to time I revisit Wiki Galleries, and more often than not there are newer,, larger or even completely surprising scans of works, including life works of Durer.

I would like to start looking at some details or the entirety of many a wonderful image  conjured by this south German maestro's  brush, knife and pen, representing the culture of the Late Medieval Europe, especially central Europe. Especially since he did plenty of chivalry-themed subjects, kings and horses etc.
 this is but a short little entry, so more to come I hope.

and I would not be myself I didn't try to bring forth some Polish themes
so here are Jagellonian dynasty  kings of the early XVI century - of Polish Kingdom and Hungarian Kingdom (Hungarian Realm was soon to collapse under the Ottoman assault) from a print devoted the apotheosis of Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman  :
Sigismund of Poland

.
Vladislaus of Hungary

.
Louis of Hungary

.
 


Valete.