Horses & Riders of Ghandara

 Salvete Omnes,

during the late Hellenistic age the northern ancient India, eastern Persia and the land beyond the Oxus & Jaxartes produced  a very specific melange of art styles and forms.

Ghandara is the lost  Shangrila of the ancient world, that is the region was this geopolitical and cultural area where Hellenistic (and older Near Eastern traditions) merged with the ancient Indian and Bactrian (Bactria was the Achaemenid Empire's jewel in the shah's crown) traditions.
so here I corralled some horse&rider-related images , that are finally available on Wiki, I have had most of them in my books and albums, but they were under the copyrights, nowadays they are freely available

 

Elephant with a rider in a chair

ps
more Indo-Greeks, Bactrians, Indo-Saka to come ..

Valete

Ludwik Gędłek pinxit

 Salvete Omnes,

'Cracovians' aka 'Krakusi' crossing a river - MN

 

today a little excursion into the XIX century world of Ludwik Gędłek (Ludwik Gedlek, German - Ludwig Gedlek), Polish genre painter of the Poland's Partition period, who upon finish his studies under prof. Władysław Łuszczkiewicz at the Cracow Academy of Arts went on to study and practice & prosper at the imperial (Austro-Hungarian)  Vienna. Some English-language sites call pan Ludwik a German painter, which is a pure ignorance pf the Central-European history :) in the Anglo-American style.
Definitely we can see & observe that master Ludwik Gedlek painted in his unique style - drawing from the historic and contemporary scenes, showing East-Central European landscapes.

On Agra-Art site there is a substantial gallery of Geldek's works -  below the artwork collected from Wiki Commons

Valete

New Title from Osprey - Medieval Indian Armies (1)

 Salvete Omnes,

 

a week ago I noticed, Osprey Publishing site, a new title - Medieval Indian Armies (1) - addressing the armies of the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain states from circa 500AD through 1500AD.
The book was written by David Nicolle and illustrated with plates by Graham Turner. 

It appears that there will be another volume showing Muslim and other armies of the same period in the greater India area (today's Pakistan, India,  Afghanistan, and Bangladesh etc).

 

I welcome such work with open arms and fully intend to read it, and probably would like to see volume II of this series.  

 

Meantime - you can explore the wonderful, sensual, flamboyant art of the the Hoysala Empire - eg  Wiki Commons site.

meantime enjoy the warm weather as we are getting very close to the dog days of the summer.
Valete

Aleksander Lesser - drawings of East-Central European arms and armor

 Salvete Omnes,

 

a short entry -  various drawings by a Jewish-Polish painter and draughtsman Aleksander Lesser , pre-Jan Matejko historical painter, among others he was a student of the German Nazarene movement artists like Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld et al. 

These drawings represent pan Aleksander's research within the  various arms and armor collections in Europe of his age. As he was a Polish historian-artist and researcher - they represent mostly items related to the  Polish-Lithuanian and Hungarian history of the early modern period. Karacena, chain-mail and bechter (mail and plate armor) armor, shishak style helmets, swords and even a winged hussar kopia.

Pan Lesser studied old paintings eg - his sketches

you can explore these and other drawings and paintings via Polish National  Museum digital platform - Aleksander Lesser.

Valete