Monday, April 20, 2026

Nadir Shah - the last great Persian conqueror in equestrian paintings

 Salvete Omnes,



tomorrow the ceasefire between Us-Israel vs Iran will expire. Perhaps there will be more war in the West Asia or perhaps they will come to an agreement (and eventual peace in the Persian Gulf region) or perhaps POTUS Trump would simply walk away from the conflict (having more pressing issues like the mid-terms in Novemebr 2026) . God willing there will be no more war.  

ad rem,

Nadir shah and his bay argamak 

Since the Persians (Elamite, Median and Persian proper)  came into annals of history in the 2nd & 1st millennium BC their armies had been led by vast variety of successful generals but also by less lucky or even hapless commanders and warlords - including the most lucky Cyrus the Great & Darius III of the Achaemenid Dynasty, Alexander the Great (the last king of kings of the Achaemenid Persia),  Seleucus I and Antiochus the Great of the Seleucids, Mithradates II & prince Rustam Surena & Artabanus IV  of the Parthian Arsakid Empire, Ardashir I, Shapur & Yazdegerd III & Peroz III of the Sassanians, Abbas the Great of Safavids  etc.



The last truly great commander in Persian millennia long history Nadir Qoli Beg/Tahmasp-Qoli Han, came from Afsharid Turkoman tribe and as Nadir/Nader Shah became the shah of Persia in 1736 until his death. 

During his life he had become a famous military commander and reformer, and due to his fame and achievement often portrayed on horseback or with horses at war. Among many things he created one of the largest and strongest armies of the period in Asia - some 375,000 strong, 

Shah and his grey argamak



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Shamshirs or sabres  of Nadir Shah 

Nadir Shah astride his grey argamak


Shamshir



Pdf - the army of Nadir Shah.




He was assassinated, almost Julius Gaius Caesar style, by the members of his comitatus in 1747.





Aga Mohammad Khan of the Qajars, the restorer of Persia unity since the  M. Karim Khan Zand rule etc, had the remains of Nadir Shah transferred to his new capital of Tehran, along the remains of Karim Khan.
But then he also had Shahrokh/Sahrok, the grandson of Nadir Shah, tortured in order to extract any treasures that had belonged to Nadir Shah, causing the hapless grandson to die. The current mausoleum is located in Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran.

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enjoy

Valete

La Gerusalemme liberata - Tassos epic poem in XVII c art

 Salvete Omnes,



Jerusalem Delivered or in original Italian- La Gerusalemme liberata (1581AD) - an epic poem on the liberation of Jerusalem by the First Crusade (1099AD) by Italian poet Torquato Tasso. The famous poem has been published many, many times and  illustrated by many artists over the centuries since its publication. 

I corralled some illustrations of the poem created in the XVII century - by David Tenniers the Younger, Nicolas Poussin, Paolo Domenico Finoglia.  

. Paintings by Finoglia and David Tenniers the Younger 




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paintings by Nicolas Poussin 


                                      



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the most acclaimed English translation was accomplished by Edward Fairfax and published in 1600AD. - the 1901 edited version from Archive



Polish poet and translator Piotr Kochanowski, Korwin coat of arms, wrote his version of the poem and this translation was published in 1618, but was not limited to a single edition as it was printed several times during the XVII century. 

1651 edition 

Valete

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Horses et riders etc - Abraham Bosse

 Salvete Omnes,



the wars, destruction and world economic tribulations & human misery seem to have no end.



So in order to bring a spark or two I corralled some equestrian images from the chisels of a French graphic artist Abraham Bosse (d.1676), active in his native French realm during the wars of his Bourbon kings: Louis XIII and the early wars of Louis XIV. In so many words this was the age of  the famous King's musketeer D'Artagnan and his chivalric companions: Atos, Portos and Aramis (after Dumas' novels) - :) . 



Ad rem, monsieur Bosse excelled in printmaking (etching) and also as a watercolorist. 


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2 pairs of carriage horses and a carriage with a seat for a driver



a spirited saddled horse and 2 mules in a background



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French armies under Louis the Just

enjoy

Valete