A little sketch with a new software

Salve,
 I've got this new painting program - Sketchbook Pro 2011 (merci Maarcin for pointing it to me  -:) ) and decided to draw this sketch, this is quasi-Swedish/German cavalryman (been reading about these pesky Swedish, Finnish, Latvia and German horsemen-enemies of the Polish horsemen during the Deluge, they were quite great warriors and riders in their own right) .
As I am looking at this 'digital painting' I am thinking that perhaps he will need his horse or a saddle at least at his feet when he is done - :)

1 more day to Christmas or as we call it - Świąt  et Wigilii

Chojnice AD 1657 - battle that confused Wikipedia editors :)

Salve,
as I have been giving links here to various Wikipedia articles, and I have noticed that they do contain plenty of errors or misleading information when come to history and often even to geography.
 It is my intention to work on some of them, eg. Polish hussars, battle of Wojnicz (gathering sources and there are plenty of these, and Radek Sikora had found already quite a few), battle of Klecko (started correcting en.wikipedia.org/Battle_of_Klecko  ) battle of Golab, and many others.

.... about a week ago my good friend Radek Sikora noticed that something was seriously wrong with the Polish Wikipedia entry on the battle of Chojnice (1657) - he started correcting it but then his corrections are still not evident (waiting for approval by some authority :(  pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitwa_pod_Chojnicami_1657    ).

English Wikipedia version of the same topic was even worse (the title states erroneously that it is a battle of AD1656 - here you can see already somewhat corrected entry by truly yours en.wikipedia.org/Battle_of_Chojnice_(1656)  ) so I, with Radek's encouragement and comments, went to correct or rather write from the scratch the entire article.

 The battle took place during the so called Deluge or the 2nd Northern War, that involved Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Denmark, Holy Roman Empire, Ducal Prussia, Brandenburg, Muscovite Russian Empire, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian Cossacks etc.

This my blog version of this article, still in development, in the spirit of the winter season we have right now in the Northern Hemisphere, 3 days before Christmas :

Prelude to the battle

Towards the end of 1656, Swedish army was blocking our Polish King John Casimir in Gransk/Danzig, who was there conducting diplomatic negotiations with French King Louis XIV envoy Antoine de Lumbres. His wife and  Polish Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga wanted to join her husband there, but she needed the Polish armies to open a passage to Gdańsk through the blockading Swedish armies. According to some sources her enemy but supposedly very chivalrous Charles X Gustav of Sweden was willing to allow Her Majesty to cross over from Wielkopolska to her husband in Pomerania, but she refused this courtesy relying instead on her regimentarz and very famous cavalry commander and zagonczyk Stefan Czarniecki (he will be a subject of my future writings, among other things  since his saddles are said to be at the National Museum in Cracow and Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, and he was depicted in many fine paintings), stationed with his division at Piotrków Trybunalski (old Polish, albeit short-lived, capital) in western Poland. 

Czarniecki ordered his cavalry and dragoons to quit winter quarters and soon they came to Wolbórz,  where she was stationed with her court (and wagons) and together they begun so called 'Gdańsk expedition.' 

Before January 1, 1657 Czarniecki with his division and Her Majesty the Queen and her courtiers with her own wagon train iwithin army's wagon train came to Chojnice. Also other Polish army divisions of Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Rewera Potocki and Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Lanckoroński joined them at Chojnice about the same time, although they came south from Pomerania. As it was military custom then, the Polish cavalry companies settled across the surrounding countryside, occupying villages and hamlets, and each company being separated one from another by some distance, with the need for fodder and food in mind, and the winter snows adding more separation.

The Battle

Swedish King must have received information about these winter movements and concentration of the Polish army divisions around Chojnice during the last days of 1656 and  perhaps grew worried as they could have been preparing to assault the Ducal Prussia, then his ally etc. Apparently Swedish forced started marching towards Chojnice,  while good and brave Swedish king Carolus X Gustavus ordered  other Swedish forces near the town to scout and reconnoiter the Chojnice area, perhaps intending to surprise Poles in their winter lodgings.
Swedish cavalry command  under Rutger von Ascheberg, stationed around  the castle at Złotow, came up to Chojnice on the night od January 2, 1657, and using a captured peasant as a guide to lead them this cavalry force of 950 horsemen (reitars) comenced to attack.  His command attacked the following Polish formations: pułk of prince Dymitr (according to Pamietniki Losia) Wiśniowiecki, banners of Jan Sobieski and Koniecpolski, that were stationed 'in the middle' of the Polish wintering and spred out cavalry forces.

 According to Polish writer and participant of this battle Loś these Polish cavalry commands were very small, understaffed and spread out, also perhaps in their cups having celebrated New Year with drink and food, and thus rather pretty much unprepared for the surprise night or early morning attack.  Polish losses, listed for the battle, were sustained during that phase of the battle - according to des Noyers' reports. 

Runaways, often without saddles and only in their undergarments, from the Wisniowiecki's command spread the alarm across the entire town of Chojnice and surrounding Polish war camps. 

Meantime Swedish cavalry did  what they would normally do - collected booty, especially fine Polish horses, foodstuffs, captured goods and equipment, several prisoners, and sent them to the rear. It must have slowed their pursuit of Polish cavalry and it  gave ample time to other Polish units to assemble in more orderly fashion and meet the enemy on equal terms and finally to use the advantage of their numerical superiority. 

At some moment of this night and early morning fighting the Swedish advance might have reached the queen's wagon train and she had to seek shelter, perhaps in the town itself (?). But other memoirists do not write  about HMQ being in danger, but rather encouraging her soldiers to stand and fight and actually 'sending' the Czarniecki division into the battle. Once HMQ  gave blessing to Czarniecki, then his command went to the rescue of what was left of prince Wisniowiecki pulk. And perhaps other Polish army divisions came to give more coordinated response to the Swedish vanguard onslaught, and as the break of dawn of January 3, 1657 was slowly approaching.

 As winter day  of January 3, 1657 came then the quite victorious Swedish commander must have realized, that he had stepped into the hornets' nest and begun hasty retreat - according to des Noyers 'bride abattue.' 

His command retreat was made towards the old Teutonic Knights fortress at Czŀuchów, then in Swedish hands. The surprise night attack came to cost him dearly, as Czarniecki's cavalry pursued him without mercy, and Swedish command never turned their head to face their pursuers, and his retreat turned into run-and-chase battle, and thus Swedish cavalry became in turn the Polish prey,  sustaining some 300 dead and many taken prisoners - including 50 Frenchmen serving with the Swedes ( Czarniecki brought them back to his queen and she secured their release, most likely directly  into the Polish army not-so-voluntary enlistment), and among other trophies our Poles captured 3 cavalry banners) .

As stated, the Swedish cavalry found refuge in the Czŀuchów castle and the fortress soldiers fired their artillery at the pursuing light Polish cavalry that then naturally abandoned their pursuit after chasing the Swedes for at least 2 Polish miles or some 14 kilometers. Being the light cavalry  unprepared to assault this old Teutonic stronghold and perhaps in light of rumors about  the king Charles X Gustav forces on a march towards Chojnice they turned away. 

Therefore, shortly after their disengagement from the pursuit of the Swedish cavalry, the Polish commanders decided to avoid any further engagement with the Swedes and to withdraw their force and wagon trains from Chojnice towards Nakło nad Notecią, which they reached marching through the winter roads on January 7, 1657. 

Polish army sustained rather  light causalities: less than 50 killed and wounded, and 9 taken prisoner, as I said before unknown numbers of horses and  Polish wagons were also taken in this Swedish initial surprise attack.

It appears that this Swedish cavalry command sustained some 35-45% losses of their initial numbers and perhaps their losses was severely missed during later weeks when pursing Czarniecki and our brave Queen on their march towards Gdansk.

Aftermath

From their camp at Kcynia near Nakło Polish commanders and her majesty queen haggled a bit about the pay for the soldiers with the soldiers themselves, who had demanded it or threatened to march away. HMQ Marie Louise Gonzaga decided to take matters in her own hands (she was a great 'statesman' and of warrior's heart) and promised to pay soldiers from her own sources. As a result of this pay arrangement Czarniecki (with 6000 cavalry or some others say 2000 cavalry) and Her Majesty Queen (and her wagon train and courtiers) went on to complete their Gdańsk Expedition and eventually joined their Polish king at Gdańsk after some more feints and scrimmages with the 'blinded' Swedish commands.

 The other Polish commanders stayed south of Gdansk Pomerania. They were to fight many more battles against the Swedes and their allies in the upcoming months and years, as one of the heaviest fighting was awaiting them yet.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Lettres de Pierre Des Noyers, secretaire de la reine de Pologne Marie-Louise de Gonzague, pour servir a l’histoire de Pologne et de Suede de 1655 a 1659, p. 289 - 290.
• Pamiętniki Łosia, towarzysza chorągwi pancernéj Władysława margrabi Myszkowskiego, wojewody krakowskiego, obejmujące wydarzenia od r. 1646 do 1667, z rękopismu współczesnego, dochowanego w zamku podhoreckim. Wydal Zegota Pauli, Kraków.Nakładem księgarni D. E. Friedleina.1858
•  Pamiętnik Mikołaja Jemiołowskiego towarzysza lekkiej chorągwi, ziemianina województwa bełzkiego, obejmujący dzieje Polski od roku 1648 do 1679 spółcześnie, porządkiem lat opowiedziane, Zaklad Narodowy Ossolinskich, Lwow 1850. 
• Jan Stefan Wydżga i jego pamiętnik, spisany podczas wojny szwedzkiej od roku 1655 do 1660, ed. Kazimierz Wojscicki, Księgarnia G. Senewalda, 1852.
  
  
  I am yet to read Patrick Gordon's account (Scottish mercenary in Swedish, Polish and Muscovite service) – he served in the Swedish army during that time – winter 1656/67.
  I wish for some Swedish and German sources, but they tend to vastly exaggerate Polish losses and diminish their own – eg Pufendorf whose writing always has thousands of Poles perishing and Swedes with almost no casualties. 

• Secondary sources

• Leszek Podhorodecki, Rapier i koncerz, Warszawa 1985, ISBN 83-05-11452-X, p. 331-332
• Adam Kersten, Stefan Czarniecki 1599 - 1665, Warszawa 1963, p. 316 - 317.
• Michał Dymitr Krajewski, Dzieje panowania Jana Kazimierza od roku 1656 do jego abdykacyi w roku 1668. S. Orgelbrand, 1846, p.27-29.
• Michał Dymitr Krajewski, Historya Stefana na Czarncy Czarnieckiego, wojewody kijowskiego, hetmana polnego koronnego,Nakład Wydawn. Biblioteki Polskiej, 1859. p.87-88

 

In Fiction – but based strongly on sources and scientific literature

Bohdan Królikowski, Błażeja Siennickiego przypadki wojenne osobliwsze, Warszawa 1978, p.147-153. - this is a very fine work of literature written by Lublin-based university professor, academician and fine historical writer, with many books on the history of Polish horsemen and cavalry.

post scriptum

according to the sources the Polish banners and companies fighting at Chojnice came from the light cavalry and pancerny (raised mostly to substitute the ever-lacking winged hussar cavalry) cavalry, and some dragoons - in fact Polish dragoons just used horses to get to and from the battle, being mounted infantry. Here I tried to paint, using Gimp and MyPaint, a winter clad pancerny companion, armed with a 'dzida'  or rohatyna with a small pennon, bow and arrows, pistols and sabre. He has chain-mail armor and vambraces to protect his forearms. 

Polish hussar sketch III

Salve,

this is the last one today - progress on some old sketch of mine that needs finishing.

I decided to dress him in more appropriate XVI century Western armor, with a shorter an wider sabre, but with a 'shishak' helmet as shown many late XVI century Polish funerary relieves in some Polish churches  eg. at Oliwa Cathedral shown in this photo hussars at Oliwa . I may put his wildcat skin over the horse, I am not sure yet.

He was mostly painted with MyPaint and some Gimp resizing etc. More finished sketch will follow soon, I hope.

I am also planing to show several Hungarian hussars of the same period, with armor and weapons, Slovakian and Hungarian photos of funeral effigies provided to me by Samuel :)

Meantime, have been looking at this one XIV century Seldjuk  manuscript showing mounted warfare (got it form various Dr. David Nicolle books and articles) and various weapons, some related to the Polish hussars - :) (by the way some passionate person does wonderful reenactment of a Seldjuk warrior  here Seldjuk reenactment  )

Finally I just got from my new friendly library, interlibrary loan, a book by  Dr Colin Taylor titled Sun'ka Wakan, Sacred Horses of the Plains: Ethos and Regalia. - glimpsed at the content and illustrations - wonders, my fellow net travelers, wonders in there!
ps
I have got to fly across the frozen USA this weekend, hope all will work at the airports
ps'
 I bought ArtRage Studio Pro as suggested by Jan, we shall see if it works well for me :)

Polish hussar sketch II

Salve,

this work is really a reworking of a late XVII century image from a painting showing election (Polish-Lithuanian nobles elected their kings wikipedia.org Free_election   ). I do not have a large copy of the painting (shown here in this book cover historycy.org 3277  ) so I decided to 're-create' this late XVII century hussar, amongst other sources using this early XVIII century painting wikimedia.org/ Kalisz1706.jpg  showing Polish-Russian victory over the Polish-Saxon forces during the Great Northern War   .wikipedia.org Great_Northern_War  at the ancient city of Kalish (Roman Calisia).
Progress will happen after the holidays (Christmas and New Year etc ).

ps
would like to welcome new follower of my blog and comment on the fine work my internet friend and follower of my blog Michal/Kadrinazi is doing on his own blog!!! Michal has  got me going on on the subject of falconry, and some talk on this pages should follow... ojala!

Polish hussar sketch I

Salve,

 some little work has been restarted lately - the idea is that a winged hussar is trying to use his horse's weight and hooves to break the fence blocking his company/banner path.

 It came about when we, Radek Sikora and I, were discussing possibilities of Polish hussars breaking the wooden fence at Klushino field. More finished versions were done then dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2009/04/kluszyn-or-klushino-ad-1610.html  , and this drawing had remained a sketch for some time until I decided to work on it with GIMP and MyPaint.
Progress work I will show some time later, I hope. Depends on Santa how soon - :)

Battle of Byczyna film on youtube

Salve,
on Polish history forum one of the users, nicknamed after a great Polish warrior of the XVII century Hieronim Lubomirski, provided a link historycy.org byczyna  to a fragment of the 1980s Polish TV series titled 'Kanclerz' (the Chancellor) where this intesting battle Polish-Hungarian-German has been depicted - here is the link - Byczyna

Please do note this is a TV film and it does have all the shortcomings of such non-historic media presentation, with all the multiple faults and omissions present, i.e. too short lancers, winged hussars charging as if a mob of hunters and steeplechasers etc. But it offers a feeling of how winged hussars, post-Stephen Bathory reforms, might have looked, and the foggy nature of the weather in the film is a nice attempt to show the actual conditions of the Byczyna battle. Actually this film, made at the end of the Soviet Poland is not a bad work,  and perhaps not as puffed up as a period work by one Polish film director who did 'slaughter' Sienkiewicz's 'With Fire and Sword.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Fire_and_Sword   wiki/With_Fire_and_Sword film

This was one of the more curious battles of the Polish XVI century warfare, but for now please let me leave it at that.

    The image above - some time ago I showed some very old drawings of mine here, one of them   old-watercolor-pen-ink-old I  was intended to show Polish pancerny (medium cavalry) of the Deluge en.wikipedia.org Deluge history and King Jan III Sobieski's  era,  and today I had some time and so I worked on the old drawing (ink and watercolor) with GIMP and MyPaint.  I hope the  results are evident - although more work remains to be done  - :)

ps You can view the clip at Kadrinazi's blog as well  kadrinazi.blogspot.com husaria byczyna

Filippo Orsoni's drawings from Victoria & Albert Museum, UK

Salve,
I would like to share my latest discovery of sorts - a more that 20 drawings XVI century drawings  showing Renaissance warriors, horse harness, armor and horse tack Victoria and Albert Museum in UK.
 
    I must say that I love the European Renaissance period for their armor and paintings, and also because, a little  sadly, during this period the artists-armourers  sung their swan song when comes to the knightly armor.
   well, nevertheless, before full armor suits gave way to courtly dresses of French court and uniforms of Louis XIV armies, there was this period of great flowering of knightly fine arts and design, especially in Milan and Nuremberg. Goldsmiths, painters, designers and sculptors worked on the final stage in the development of European knightly armor, because of the Renaissance interest in the Antiquity and its arts, they started decorating armor with Roman and Greek ancient fashions. 
One of the most famously known workshops was  the Milanese armourer Filippo Negroli shop/atelier   en.wikipedia Filippo_Negroli , example of his work Burgonet alla Romana Antica   - I could not more warmly recommend a  book, produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, titled Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance,  you can get it from the net eg amazon.com/Heroic-Armor-Italian-Renaissance-Stuart , full of scholarly articles on the subject of XVI century armor and  illustrated with prints, paintings, photos of actual armor, and drawings of actual designs.
In that book I came across drawings of Filippo Orsoni, little known Italian painter and designer,  showing  a fanciful rider dressed for a horse masquerade/parade or horse carousel. Another drawing shown in that book was a designed set of armor of alla antica type (nice introduction in this MET article with bibliography   metmuseum.org renaissance armor ) for the dashing French monarch Henri II (got to write one on the fine chivalrous king), in this painting he is still   a dauphin of France, dressed in wonderfully adorned half-armor riding a curb-bitted  but  very fine  gray stallion with tied-up tail in a equally splendid war saddle:

This small painting was done by a famous portraiture painter Francois Clouet en.wikipedia. Clouet  is one of several paintings showing Henri II riding his horses,  the king who was known for his passion for horses, hunting, war and one beautiful mistress.

Finally, there is the link to the Victoria and Albert Musem album, well, small part of it, in their display.
Please note you will find on page 18 see a hussar-costumed rider ridding a fine horse, wearing a plumed shishak, armed with a painted lance and Balkan shield; also a Turkish rider and an armoured knightly rider; and a chart showing a war horse depicting potential equine illness - all and all fine drawings, too bad only 20 out of 306  vam.ac.uk filippo_orsoni

Achaemenid Iranian images from Turkey

Salve,
 my 'anda' ( Mongolian for sworn-brother ) Patryk Skupniewicz provided me to a link to a news article from  the Circle of  Ancient Iranian Studies  www.cais-soas.com/news the-return-of-colours , regrading already closed  exhibit in the Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tör Museum in Turkey -
 The subject matter is the reconstructed 470BC  Tatarli Tumulus and beautiful paintings on wood contained herein.

here you can see charging Achaemenid hippotaxotai archer cavalry, armed in two kinds of bows: www.cais-soas.com/horse archers
 Note horse harness (interesting bridle with a bosal?)  and long saddle blankets -shabraques, unfortunately the image is cut off at the horse's croup and we cannot see the tied tails, another typical Achaemenid Iranian and Eurasian steppe tradition.

and here the Achaemenid chariot crew pulled by splendid horses, similar  horses were carved  in  the wall of the Persepolis' Apadana.  www.cais-soas.com Reconstructed_Achaemenid_painting_beam3WM

and in addition  a couple of my own drawings and sketches-in progress showing Achaemenid warriors
 ps
would like to welcome all new followers - thank you for your interest
ps'
by the way I joined this blog - splendid display of  drawings and on the subject comic book images creation  - by one of the finest 'ink' artists out there Marcos Mateu-Mestre  http://marcosmateu.blogspot.com/
 Marcos has a very new book on comics making titled 'Framed Ink' amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers

Two Renaisance drawings from 'Joconde'

Salve,
     Renaissance art is full of horses, and while looking  for some examples of Alphonse de Nueville art (  Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe_de_Neuville  great French military and equine painter  of XIX century) I found two nice Renaissance drawings from France. I find them quite intriguing as they show rather large horses, most likely stallions or geldings, in harness outfits that  resemble Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque  carousels (equine festivals with equine games and displays of courtly ridding).

   Ad rem, the  French net library/depository 'Joconde' offers us these two fine ink wash drawings from the 3rd quarter of XVI century by the workshop of Niccolo dell'Abbate dell'Abbate , Italian artist who worked in XVI century France and was one of the masters of the Fontainebleau School.
  
In the first drawing we can see a page holding a saddled parade horse, dressed for occasion. It seems to me that our messer Niccolo or his pupil was showing a proposed design for a horse parade outfit, most likely intended   for his royal masters, the House de Valois as horse furniture/harness in this painting showing Francis I and H.R. Emperor Charles V  Franz_I_und_Karl_V    or in this famous full armor portrait of Francis I, nota bene we need to examine it in the future as opposed to the Titian's Charles V portrait ,  commons FrancoisI I France.jpg   Tizian Charles V .  Besides the flamboyant harness we can observe a very nicely decorated war saddle, long stirrup leathers, long curb-bit (long shanks),  two cinches/girths.

Drawing below shows a page riding another caparisoned horse. Here we got this beautifully drawn  example of a gaited horse, ridden by a page with one hand in a really long-shanked curb-bit. Please note that the saddle is different from the one above, it is not a war saddle per se, as it seems to lack the extended thigh protectors characteristic to XV-XVI century war saddles, or perhaps it represents the new type of Western European saddle.  Again we see two cinches/girths and long stirrup leathers. The style of ridding, long stirrups etc, seems to be what the Spanish and Portugese called ' la brida.'
This bridle, like the one above, has a not throatlatch per se, but there is a second 'headstall' attached to the proper headstall acting both a throatlatch and a suspender for a small tassel, done  in the ancient Turkish/Islamic/Mongol fashion.

 Here you can see an example of the master Niccolo painted horses, a but different from these two drawings  - Niccolo dell'Abbate_002.jpg

a sketch in progress - Lisowczyk

Salve,
a sketch in progress - working over an old watercolor -  I am using GIMP and MyPaint

This time the subject is loosely based on the Lisowczyk - lisowczycy (plural) or Liswoski kozaks theme -
wiki/Lisowczycy
 Juliusz Kossak's Lisowczyk 
Kossak's lisowczyk2
Michalowsk Jezdziec Lisowczyk
  Brandt Pochod_Lisowczykow.jpg
Brandt Lisowczycy_przed_gospoda
  Brandt Lisowczycy Strzelanie z luku 
in the last painting please note the Moldavian border fortress of Khotin (Chocim) in the background  wiki/Khotyn  .
The Polish-Lithuanian  Commonwealth army is pictured in the foreground, the gathered banners and regiments and Cossacks are already getting a horsearchery show by the lisowczycy while the Polish forces have been preparing to fight to death at  this southwestern border of Commonwealth, being entrenched within their much fortified camps around the Khotyn fortress, they know the Ottoman Turkish army augmented by the Tatars would come soon, it is AD 1621.

 

I will post progress of this one too, later next month, I hope..

ps
  interesting blog (in Polish)  by painter Jarek Glod who is copying/painting great Kossak and other masters' works and showing his own works' progress  http://nabial.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html

King of Poland Royal uhlans 1770s

Salve,
English travelers' accounts of their voyages during have of the XVI-XIX have been great source of information for this blog, my friend Radek  found some interesting account of the 1770s uhlan regiment, serving as a household unit of the King of Poland:

Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark: interspersed ..., Volume 1

 By William Coxe, page 140



Ulans or Uhlans for the King
The king has a corps of 2000 troops in his own pay, and entirely dependent upon himself. These troops consist chiefly of Ulans or light horse, who furnish alternately the escort which accompanies his majesty. We saw a small party, about thirty, who were encamped near his villa, and had afterwards an opportunity of examining them more minutely.
The Ulans are chiefly Tartars, many of them Mahometans, and are greatly to be relied on for their fidelity. The corps is composed of gentlemen and vassals : they all form in squadron together, but are differently armed ; they both indiscriminately carry sabres and pistols, but the gentlemen only bear lances of about ten feet long ; instead of which, the others are armed with carabines. Their dress is a high fur cap, a green and red jacket, pantaloons of the fame colour, which cover the boots as low as the ankle; and a petticoat of white cloth descending to the knee*. Their heads are all shaved after the Polish manner. Their lances, at the end of which is fastened a long swallow-tailed flag [pennon] of black and red cloth, are shorter and weaker than those of the Austrian Croats, but they carry and use them much in the same manner, and with no less dexterity. The men were of different sizes, and seemed fine and well-grown, but were greatly disfigured with their petticoats and pantaloons.
Polish horses for light cavalry
The horses on which they were mounted. were about fourteen hands high, of remarkable spirit, with great strength of shoulder. 
Poland is much esteemed for its breed of horses; and the king of Prussia procures his light cavalry from this country. 
On the ruin of the Polish horses

The breed, however, has been almost ruined during the late civil wars*, and the nobility are now chiefly supplied from Tartary.

Coxe, Travels vol1 (page 140)
* I intend to draw and paint several reconstructions of these Royal Uhlans (ulans) - pan Bronislaw Gembarzewski  premier military uniform historian from Poland seen in this relief  B.Gembarzewski , in his monumental work 'Polish Soldier - arms and equipment' vol II has some interesting reconstructions and cites sources for the Royal Uhlans, from 1770s through 1794.
*Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth under the Saxon kings was subject to increasing Russian influence during the first half of XVIII century, and after the last Polish king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski  S_A_Poniatowski  - his election at Wola was subject to some paintings showing  Polish horses eg  Election_of_Stanislaw_II_August_of_Poland_at_Wola muzeum w Poznaniu , was elected with full support of the Russian army bayonets, coercion and money PLC become Russian protectorate. Enraged patriotic elements of nobility declared a confederacy (at the ancient fortress of Bar in present Ukraine) and civil war erupted, but it has to be stressed that quickly the Polish-Lithuanian royal armies had been replaced by the Russian forces that had battled Bar Confederates troops  for 4 years - wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Confederation
 The end of Bar Confederacy resistance spurred three black eagles: Russia, Prussia and Austrian Empire cease the moment and to take some defenseless Polish-Lithuanian  territory. Russia received the least developed areas but Prussia took the ethnically Polish territories of northern Poland  and  begun infamous Prussian robbery of Polish-Lithuanian foreign  commerce profits and in the end caused the economic strangulation of the country (including counterfeiting Polish currency and imposing huge tariffs on PLC agricultural exports and other commerce), while the losses to Austria were painful because they took some of the best cities ( the Royal city of Lwow-Lviv,  returned in 1918 to be again stolen from Poland in 1939 and 1944 by the 1st class world murderer and genocidal tyrant J. Stalin ), most populated areas of the country, including  the horse breeding areas of southern Poland - it was the so called First Partition of Poland wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Partition_of_Poland

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends, readers and followers :)

ps
 a little sketch after drawing by Juliusz Kossak

mustangs from Colorado

Salve,
Last month I visited the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and came across some Mustangs (aka wild horses) that had been captured by the BLM (Bureau of Land management) and sold of at a public auction.

Horses in these pictures come from Nevada and Wyoming, captured at a tender age of 1 year (yearlings), and since then have been living in a green pasture close to Elicot, Co. Note that until the summer the gray gelding had been a stallion.

In these pictures you can not see clearly but they do have the BLM freeze markings and I will add some more where they are visible.

enjoy

Muscovite Reitar 1660s - update I

Salve,
a bit of an update on my Muscovite Reitar started here muscovite-reitar-1660s

I added double reins and a curb-bit (Polish. munsztunk) on a horse, made horse's neck a bit longer;  on the officer - a longer beard (hope you like it better, Kadrinazi),  and then some other little equipment parts that make this soldier appear more 'historic'
pa ka

Władysław Szerner - Polish horse and genre painter

Salve,
 today a little too forgotten painter of the Munich School of Polish painting:
Władysław Szerner  agraart.pl szerner  , born in 1839, studied art at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts  beginning in 1862.  Unfortunately for his studies one year later,  when Motherland called, he, a very promising artist, joined the Polish army during the 1863 January Uprising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising . As we know the January uprising ended in defeat and pan (Mr.) Szerner was forced to emigrate after the defeat to France and eventually settled in Bavaria.
After studies at the Munich Art Academy - with various German masters, Alexander  Wagner, Hermann Anschütz and Alexander Strähuber,  he became an independent artist, and his atellier was next to the famous one of  Jozef Brandt, and these two Polish artist became fast friends, especially because they shared similar interest in Polish history and genre paintings. Their freindship lasted for life and Pan Szerner often traveled with Brandt to his estate in Oronsko, near Radom, and partook in Brandt's excursions to the Old Polish Borderland aka Kresy (Ukraine). Being a member of Munich Kunstverein  kunstverein-muenchen.de , he exhibited there from 1874 until 1909, as well as in Lwow(Lviv), Cracow and Warsaw. He was admired by many literary personages of the XIX century Poland, eg J.I. Kraszewski en.wikipedia.org Kraszewski prized him for being able to capture scenes of Poland's countryside au naturel, with believable detail and with joyful flavour so characteristic of these picturesque sites .
He not only painted horses and the images of Old Poland, but also was a skilled graphic artist and draughtsman,  and was able to copy in pencil many famous paintings by his friend Brandt so they could be engraved and printed in various contemporary periodicals, eg 'Kłosy' and 'Tygodnik Ilustrowany' of Warsaw, to the delight of many a reader.
 Later on he started painting the 'exotique' and wonderfully colorful inhabitants of the eastern Carpathian Mountians - the Huculs (Hutzuls).
His art is in many private collections, and his works fetch reasonable prices at auctions. He had a son, also a painter, and their quite similar works can be subject to forgeries, as father's works are more expensive nowadays.

A horse -MyPaint-Gimp drawing

salve,
todays image came about when I was looking at the paintings of the Polish XIX century painter (and the XIX century Munich School of Polish painting  main persona) : Jozef Brandt, whose horses, from the Old noble Polish Ukraine, were splendid creatures  of  legend and reality, both at the same time :)
a nice display of 'mosci' Jozef Brandt's art - pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Brandt

This the effect of my 2 hour afternoon study in digital brushwork - Mypaint and Gimp PS, great open source software for Linux Ubuntu.

'


  ps
a little peek at the horse and military art on the Internet:
by chance I found this fine artwork of Spanish military history painter (uses acrylics and watercolor) Angel Garcia Pinto and his blog. I must say that Señor Pinto's blog is a splendid display of his gorgeous historical illustration - angelgpinto.blogspot

the next artist's brushwork is fantastic:  he hauls from Catalunia (province of Spain) and he is the most exceptional painter of horses and Spanish XIX century  military history - don Augusto Ferrer Dalmau  -   arteclasic.com

Another fine Spanish military art and horse painter Jose Ferre Clauzel           - jose ferre clauzel

a horse -playing with MyPaint

Salve,
digital brushes at work - MyPaint   :)

Royal City of Lwow Banner 1410 sketch

Salve,
 this past July there was 600 anniversary of the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) and Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian victory over the Western European knights and Teutonic Kinghts.
I started working on this piece a while ago - it is far from finished, perhaps too far. It purports to show a Lwow banner 'ensign' mounted on his faithful 'dextrarius' aka English language  'destrier' - I am not going to refer here to the Wikipedia page on the subject as it is not a good entry.

American themes

Salve,
some native Amerindian themes, I hope to do many more in the future, especially Cheyennes (I admit I have been looking at the XIX century Cheyenne Ledger art) and Comanches and Utes (been lately to a old battlefield place where more than 160 years ago Comanches and Utes fought, and 240 years ago Spanish-Apache-Pueblo expedition  was crossing the Continental Divide searching for the Cuerno Verde's Comanches)

Turkish rider sketch

Salve,
this one is reworking of an old sketch into a new image, this time he is going to be a Ottoman Turkish cavalryman  or .. well, whether an akinci, delier or sipahi I do not know yet. Time period XVI century CE.

 

V.

Polish light Rider sketch in progress

Salve,
I am working on this little animated one, this time i cannot decide what kind of weapons to give to this fellow - a kozak cavalryman (not a Cossack) or Polish-Lithuanian light rider. Wearing a zupan, bare-headed, with his bow and arrow, and faithful sabre... the rest it is still to be seen

Gallic sketch

Salve,
a bit of improvement work on this old painting that has never been finished - purports to show Gallic horsemen of the second half of I century BC.
Hopefully I will finish this one and another that shows a horseman hunting a wild boar

One does not live by sword and horseriding alone :)

Salve,
Our ancestors loved to eat and drink, and only the coming of the Soviet Poland known as PRL (from 1945-90) almost destroyed our national culinary arts. Alas they have been coming back and old recipes have been brought back, and especially Polish meat smoking and fermented sausage making has been having a 'Renaissance' of sorts in Poland and... in the United States and Canada - in the North American there is a bunch of Polish meat making afficionados who collaborated on 3 books already, eg available on Amazon Stanley-Marianski
Note that it is not easy to obtain some good organic pork these days around New York City (as oppose to Montreal, Canada) nor good organic natural (cleaned tripes) casing is readily available.
...this past September my friendWaldi (Waldemar Kozik who also is a friend and collaborator of Mr Marianski ) went to the Catskills (mountains in New York about 2 hours drive from NYC). The purpose of the trip was to ... smoke some Polish sausages he had made based on Old Poland recipes. Valdi gets most of his meats from this one great Greek butcher shop (albeit some Puertoricans and Dominicans work there too, it is the Big Apple after all) in Astoria, Queens. We go there to get some good Kalamata lives, oil and other great Greek goods - in XVII century our ancestors had Armenian and Turkish merchants bring saffron,  cinnamon, cumin, wine from Hungary and further south, Greek raisins, Persian raisins and dates, and other Eastern delicacies so their food was very spice-ed up, but not 'hot' or picante/caliente in Thai or Mexican style. I am not a specialist on the food history so let us leave the food history and get back to our story.
Valdi came back after a week, looking very 'mountain man' :) and only his faithful Tibetan Lhasa Apso 'Zack' saved his skin and brought him back to civilization, while his coolers were full of wonderfully smoked sausages and meats.
Naturally as friend do, we then  had a 'potlatch' ( in a Polish tradition) and some sausages were brought forth: Lisiecka (favorite of our beloved pope John Paul II), Krakowska Dry (still drying :) ), Hunter (Mysliwska), dark venison sausage (made out of whitetail deer meat) and Wiejska (Country natural) along with some 'nalewka' and other stronger spirits from Poland (eg Debowa  - oak vodka).
 You can see the sausages on these two pictures:
here are sliced Hunter, thick Krakowska in slices and one piece, and Country natural also sliced.

and here is the venison one with the other three sliced and in a pieces.

Valdi is a master of his art (and also a fine photographer) , and in order to try his delicious  sausages even some of the  New York rich and famous ask him to share  his artfully made sausages, smoked salmon and other meats.
Anyway, food was good, especially eaten with rye bread (made our Slavic way which is the best) and after the party ended, I took Lisiecka home and we have been enjoying it a little bit at a time, along with the other 3 sausages.

There is nothing like good food, smooth drink, and fine company when leaves turn golden and red and evenings grow longer and longer. We can only aspire to the feast carried by our Eastern European nobility, be it in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania.
until the next time

Slow Autumn re-start of my bloggin'

Salve,
I must say that my blogging has been rather slow these days, I do hope it will pick up soon but thus far it is a rather snail pace of a movement. Do forgive me.
Of a subejct I intend to cover within next two months or before the end of the calendar year of 2010
- more Saka and Sarmatians, including their horse tack
- North Americana - meaning Native Amerindians, Spanish colonial, Mexican and American horsemen - in part inspired by sculptural work of fantastic  artist David Lemon, who also has become a new 'follower of my blog - David's blog here
- Polish, Russian,  Lithuanian etc subjects of  XVI-XVIII centuries, here dear Samuel has provided me with so much 'ammunition' from Slovakia and former Hungarian Kingdom that I cannot decide where to start
- some Slavic medieval themes - I got some projects in development
God willing :)
Curious thing happened  - I was surfing internet and on this website - Russian military history magazine  Zeughaus - in their own publishing company book on the battle of Konotop  (  Ukrainian-Crimean Tatars and Polish alliance  contra MuscovitesAD 1659 ) battle I saw my own artwork,  I inquired further and I found that they sued my artwork on the front title page inside and on page 16 within the corpus of the book itself.
The image shows  Crimean Tatar warriors on horseback, and it was published in the Infort Editions book titled Biala Cerkiew (important battle of Polish-Cossack wars) - in 2007 - wanax.pl biala-cerkiew-23-25-IX-1651
These are the pages :) :

and page 16

I do not have to add that my name is not mentioned within the book and that I was not asked about the image being included in the publication... instead the publisher's page carries a note that illustrations inside the book were prepared by V. Typikin, artist...
any my original sketch in ink and acrylic - also above another sketch from that book on the Biala Cerkiew battle.

 

 ps I would like to welcome all new 'followers' of this blog  - themselves splendid bloggers :)

Muscovite Reitar 1660s

Salve,
I have been researching the Russian reitars of the 1653-67 war, that was the war where our Polish-Lithuanian Republic was  first invaded by the  Tsar of Muscovy Russia ( I use the name Muscovy until the reign of Peter the Great who created Russia, as per Lev Gumilov thesis) then by the Swedes and prince Rakoczi of Transylwania  George_II_Rakoczi .
this is the image thus far ... 

The mid-XVIII century Uhlan, der Ulan, Ulan, Улан in the Prussian soldier writing

Salve.
long time ago I wrote this http://dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2010/02/uani-introduction.html , so now let us jump to this remarkable book from the end of the XVIII century, when a Polish-Lithuanian Tatar (and Polish) lancer was yet to become the famous ulan [uhlan] of the Napoleonic wars. Note that Prussians were actually great importers of Polish horses in the XVI,  XVII and XVIII centuries,  and most likely the so called Trakehner horse breed was created by the Prussian breeders out of some foundation mares and sires that were of Polish imports in the XVIII century.

'Remarks on Cavalry; by the Prussian Major General of Hussars Warnery' for the first time published in 1781.


on the lance, the 'queen of cavalry battle':

“There was formerly in European armies, a species of cavalry called lancers: they were armed at all points; […] they were all noble or lived nobly, but they could not be employed on all occasions, they were too expensive, each of them was obliged to have two horses for his own person, a large one for battles and tournaments and another for marches and detachments; and beside these, one for the servant who had the care of them: and it was in consequence of the great expence that these troops were discontinued, when the armies were augmented
[our general is obviously simplifying the reason why heavy lancer of  XVI and early XVII centuries became obsolete in the Western European theater of war]. It is nevertheless certain, that the lance will always be the Queen of Arms for defensive of this nature of cavalry.”

About Polish-Lithuanian ulans:

“Ulans are nowhere to be found, except in Poland, unless you assimilate them with the pretended Prussian 'Bosniacks'; they have faithfully served the Kings of the House of Saxony [Saxon kings that also were the kings of Polish_Lithuanian Commonwealth in  a from of in personal union between the countries, similar to Wladyslaw Jagello] and the present one has three regiments of them in his service; they are well mounted and disciplined, and form an admirable corps of light cavalry: they ought to be all Tartars of Lithuania ( still Muslim), brave, faithful, and steady, and by no means drunkards. There are however amongst them a few Poles; the Respublica [Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth] has also a few corps or 'pulks,' but they are by no means in the same order that the others are. They have preserved their ancient institutions; the Towarischs [towarzysz] or Noble Comrades [who] have their Podstowy [pocztowy] or servants [retainers], who are Poles; the Towarisch are the masters, and the Podstowy the privates, as formerly in France, the latter perform the ordinary service. […] the arms of the masters are, a pike [a lance] with a banderole [pennon], (or small flag) a sabre and pistols; those of the servants the same as the Hussars [sabre, carbine, a pistol or two]. In an action the latter form in second line in two ranks, in small squadrons, and the masters attack or charge in single rank, which was the custom amongst all the Gen's d'Armes [knights and later lancers].”

“no light troops are better appointed or more active or allert on horseback, than the Polish Ulans: the equipage and appointments of the Ulan and his horse, are admirable, commodious and proper: and although I am not very partial to those of the Hungarians, yet I am persuaded it is very proper for several nations, particularly those in which it is national dress.”

a little on the Polish, Tatar, Moldavian horse and Hungarian too:
...Polish, Tartar, and Moldavian horses, answer better for them [service as light cavalry] than Hungarian, those being extremely degenerated within these fifty years; without doubt, for want of attention to procure stallions from Turkey, which are found to be the best in the Hungarian Haras (or studs,) and they never had any other, while the Turks were in possession of that country.
and when talking about a light horseman's steed  our general states :
[...] for Polish horses, as light, strong, and excellent for all the operations of war.
[...]In a course of 600 paces, a good German horse, in condition, will get before a Polish, Tartar, or other horse of that description : but if the course is continued to a greater distance, the latter will regain its ground, leave the other behind, and continue in wind for a much longer time : and should the heavy horse be forced a little beyond his wind, he becomes insensible to the bit and spur, and looses all his activity.

On a light horseman and his equipment, and Polish [sic!] saddles:
For a soldier to be really a light horseman, he must be able to turn his horse quick and short, when in full speed, to raise up and catch any thing from the ground; he will find himself much firmer in his feat, have greater command of his horse, and much more agility in the exercise of his arms, &c. by being mounted on an eastern saddle, that is to say, upon a Hungarian, Turkish, or Polish one [as one can see we Polish people had our own saddles similar to Hungarian and Turkish]; to those who have been accustomed to other saddles, they appear at first to be inconvenient, but they very soon find themselves perfectly at ease in them, and ever after, prefer them to all others; they are very light, cheap, and durable, and do not so often require repairing [sic!] as the others do.

Continuing:
A good goat or sheep's skin, should be used instead of a housse [textile], they will cover at the same time, the pistols and the portmanteau [in a Polish  and Hungarian fashion, I should add] ; the bridle also ought to be as light as possible, without any unnecessary buckles or straps; there should be but one attached to the pommel of the saddle, to strap on the cloak rolled up before the trooper, which will be very important, to protect his belly from a thrust with the bayonet or sword, the stirrups should be bronzed; and by these means, the trooper, on his arrival at camp or quarters, has but few straps and buckles to clean. He covers his arms, accoutrements, &c. with the goat-skin, and has time to attend to his horse and himself; in short, every thing should be light and proper, without affectation. I have been informed, that except as to the saddles, the English regiments of Eliott, and Burgoyne, are thus equipped.
The Hussars do not require tents, [...] no light troops are better appointed or more active or allert on horseback, than the Polish Ulans: the equipage and appointments of the Ulan and his horse, are admirable, commodious and proper...
 until the next time :)
ps
Juliusz Kossak's watercolor  is to show one of the foremost Polish light horse commander and 'zagończyk' (zagonchikh) of the XVIII century Kazimierz (Casimir) Pulaski, 'father of the American cavalry', hero of USA and Poland. Here our Kazimierz  is shown during the action against the Russians near the fortified and very Holy monastery of Częstochowa (where our only  Queen of Poland resides :) ),  that monastery  he successfully defended (for 2 years) against the Russian invaders and their Polish supporters during the Bar Confederacy 1768-72.
..the saddles come from the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, and represent XVIII century Polish-Lithuanian saddlery, most likely from the old royal city of Lwow (Lviv) :)