Saturday, January 29, 2022

Winged Hussar and other images from the Book of friends

Salvete Omnes,



Book of friends -  or more properly Johann Joachim Prack von Asch's liber amicorum was a compilation of entries spanning 1587-1612AD, including the period of the so called Long War (thanks to Bruno Mugnai I have the 2-volume book  on the said war  ), with the paper coming from the ancient paper bazar in Constantinople. Joachim Prack von Asch from was a Hapsburg diplomat, who  traveled between Constantinople,  the capital of  Ottoman Empire and  Bohemia and other lands of his emperor, Rudolph II Hapsburg.

The Book of Friends is available either on the Getty Digital Collections site or on Archive - world's library - and from its pages come this gouache miniature showing a winged hussar killing his lancer adversary, a Turkish Ottoman lancer.



the Christian winged hussar is on the left - piercing with his hussar lance the throat of the Ottoman sipahi or perhaps the elite Deli lancer.
The winged huusar has a large wing on his left side, clearly visible shield, a shishak helmet with three feathers, a leopard pelt on his shoulder, short zupan, red close-fitting breeches, yellow boots with long spurs, under his thigh he carries a hussar war-hammer with pick (nadziak) - he is a picture-perfect winged hussar of the period, be it in Polish realms or the Hungarian lands.  His sorrel horse is caparisoned with an animal pelt, the bridle is with a curb-bit , reins and headstall without any visible adornments .
His Ottoman adversary has a shield,  tall Ottoman shishak with a wing on its front,  he has  some armor(perhaps mail), loose-fitting sharavari (Turkish salvar, from Persian sharavara) pants, a kilij sabre and a koncerz (estoc), also  a painted lance with lance apple.  His gray horse is caparisoned with a long textile fringed shabraque,  his bridle is ornate and sumptuous, at the throatlatch there is a long horse bunczuk(Turkish tug),  

and some other horse-related images




Valete 

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