David Teniers the Younger - Guard room with saddle, pistolssuch & armor

 Salvete Omnes,

the paintings of the Flemish Teniers family artists have already graced this blog.
Today I would like to share with you this painting by David Teniers the Younger - The Interior of a Guard Room (painted between 1635-45). 

And in the foreground, on the right, we get a depiction of a Western European war saddle of this period (the Thirty Years War).

On the wall there is a pair (or a brace) of pistols in holsters, also done in red, like the saddle

war hammer /nadziak 

.

another saddle from this 1643 saddle (  a black and white/sepia photo of the painting available on wiki commons )

such armor could have been worn by reiters/pistoleers/cuirassiers and Polish winged hussars

and the another version or the color photo of the same painting -

enjoy 

Valete

Did winged hussars' horses wear some horse armor in the 17th century?

 Salvete Omnes,

a little bit on the winged hussars history and horse armor of their period- 

when studying the history of the Polish Crown forces during the second half of 16th trough early 7th centuries, we can observe that there exists rather very small corpus of iconographic material showing these cavalrymen, especially for the period of 1580 through 1590s. There is more iconography pertaining to the Hungarian lance cavalry or the Ottoman Turkish horsemen of the same period.

During the 16th century the heaviest Polish armored horsemen (gravioris armaturae) also armored, even if not the whole barding but partially with crinet, chamfron & peytral,  their war mounts.

eg the Orsza [Orsha] battle iconography

, the Miechowita's Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis,  

Bielskis' opus magnum The Universal Chronicle (and up to the 1590s - The Polish Chronicle)

or a drawing showing a detail from the Radziwill's Palace gallery painting depicting 1568 raid by Radziwill and Sieniawski.

when comes to the early 17th century we can see some armored horse in several works

Stanislaw Zolkiewsk's coffin relief - done some time after the death of the Crown grand hetman in 1621,

or drawing by Gembrzewski, published in his winged hussar book in 1938, based on a depiction of winged hussar captain  from the panting in of king Sigismund III Vasa ( coppied by Aleksander Lesser from the  Deutschesmuseum  Nuremberg Gallery in 1883)  .

So perhaps the elements of horse armor - crinet/crinniere and chamfron (with a rondel and a spike) were still being used, albeit sporadically, by the winged hussars and/or some Crown commanders and rotamiesters/captains. 

Valete

RIP, Sanjulian 1941-2026

Salvete Omnes,

The family of Manuel Perez Clemente aka Sanjulian made an announcement that this great Spanish artist passed away today. 

@ Heritage  Auction

Pacem Aeternam, Maestro Sanjulian

Sanjulian at Heritage Auctions 

RIP

Valete 

Columbus Day, Conquest & return of Horses to the Americas

 Salvete Omnes,

today, as every  Monday close to October 12, we celebrate the national holiday known as Columbus Day to commemorate the day when the 12th of October but in 1492 the small Spanish armada, of three ships, commanded by the royal admiral Colon (Columbus) having crossed the Atlantic landed their boats in the Bahama Islands. 

Technically or more precisely, the horses arrived in the Americas a year later, during the second voyage of Columbus, in December 1493. 

Long live the Spanish horses of the Americas  and all other American horses that came after 1493.

For the indigenous peoples of the Americas the Age of Conquista (Conquest) has begun an continues to this day.. with the African and Eurasian diseases, alcoholism, death, destruction and loss of culture, language and identity. One could say that they received horses, Christianity, Western civilisational Progress,  and the final end to their cannibalism - all in return for their Americas.

Like the cowering woman before Columbus  in the sculpture below

.

Valete

Beautiful kilij sabre from Swedish Collections

 Salvete Omnes,

Perusing the Swedish Museums collections on  Wiki Commons I came across some fine photos of one of the most splendidly appointed sabres from the 17th century Ottoman & Transylvanian/Hungarian milieu.

This kilij (Ottoman) sword with its sheath was part of the large gift from Transylvanian prince Gabor Bethlen, arch-enemy of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to Gustavus Adolphus, his brother-in-law & king of Sweden. 

The museum's weapon researchers determined that the sword kilij-style blade was made by a sword-smith whom they called Hassan al-Misri. The hilt was finished much later, by some Ottoman or Hungarian jeweler/goldsmith. 

The sabre's gold covered, enameled hilt is also expansively  decorated with precious stones, the sabre's scabbard as well - in total  70 rubies and 31 turquoises.

.

Valete