2 "Amigos' from one source - on using the period iconography

 Salvete Omnes,

I would like to share with you two interesting examples on fair use of art and also on the need for caution when looking at the period art.

Stefano della Bella - Italian artist working until the 1660s - active in Rome (papal court), Florence and Paris (French court), creating his own art in the form of drawings, then engraving & etching and printing his creations. 

MET has this image - Polish horseman, part of the 'Figures on Horseback' (Cavaliers nègres, polonais et hongrois) collection.

Rotameister or rotmistrz Pieczowski in 1645AD

this etching - dated to 1648-53 - , aside his beauty and artistic aspects,  is very  rich in the material cultural details, as it is most likely than not that the actual drawings drawn by della Bella, eg  in situ when our royal Polish ambassador's cavalcade entered Rome in 1633 , served as the source material for maestro Stefano. 

The embassy of 1645 - the royal  Polish ambassador's entry into Paris in 1645 - drawings held in the British Museum, and my posts about them here & here.

Fast forward to the period of wars in Polish Commonwealth -1648-1670s - and this artist Johann Hoffman of Nuremberg combined the original image by della Bella with the head and hat from Hondius. (Hondius' etching was done in 1650AD says this portal)

instead of the mace our king carries a nadziak (horseman's pick)

Also, this Nuremberg artists did not know the reins were not chains with links, but sort of little 'apples'-bells that when in motion created noise and jingle. (there are actual examples of such jingly reins in the Russian museum of Kremlin).

Finally, another artist made use of the della Bella's original -  Johann A. Boner, who created a mirror image by coping the original, with his limited skill and knowledge, and created a busy background for the images, consistent with the tittle.
This time the rider became a Tatar Khan with the Ottoman Turkish army in the background .

enjoy

Valete

Enrique IV of Castile - la gineta & la brida

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I copied the image of Enrique (Henry) of Castilla (Castile), as his mounted image was picture perfect cavalier riding la gineta or in the Spanish Moorish fashion, with short, wide stirrups and long lance.
Looking at the images of Enrique I came across the photos of the stained glass window from el Alcazar (royal castle) of Segovia. 

.. and some more images of this king from miniature.

.and for comparison, also from Segovia - a knight riding la brida (long stirrups), astride his armored horse wielding a sword

in both images the mounted knights are armored with plate armor
.

kings coats of arms from the Segovia cathedral

later, posthumous image of the king

Valete

Louis Maurer & America XIX century racing horses

 Salvete Omnes,

a quick post but the subject matter is grand - the American harness racing horses in the art of Louis Maurer. 
Nota bene I had worked a little bit with the harness racing horses back in a day, it was very interesting to watch these powerful pacers & trotters  eat speed in their sulky harness around the track, and later on when in a herd and at liberty  prance among some apple orchards. 

I would have provided some links to my favorite world library - Archive - but less than a month ago Archive was attacked by malicious hacking assault and has been restoring its services, especially the book library (Way Back machine is back and running). 

So we have to have patience and meantime we can enjoy the equestrian lithography by  Louis Maurer (1832-1932) - from Wiki Commons.

some flat racing American Thoroughbred - 

 

Do note that Herr Maurer worked for Currier & Ives, the XIX century American printmaking firm, famous for their lithographies . 

Valete

Hanas Kreutzberger - horse types circa 1562 in Central Europe

 Salvete Omnes,

The Bavarian State llibrary has several copies of the XVI century German farrier's work, Hans Kreutzberger, on the bits of the period -  I do not read this old German script, but I am trying to decipher the script in the horse plates.
But there are almost 400 curb-bits described in this volume. and some splendid horse woodcuts and drawings showing horse conformation 

this is the title page from 1591 edition

..

and horses 

the Turkish horse  - from the 1562 drawing

and Hungarian cavalier, buckler and sabre,  with a Wallachian horse

sadly no Polish horse, do note how the bridles are fastened etc.

some spurs, a stirrup and a currycomb 

Enjoy

Valete