Equites Legionis & De Bruyn's Roman prints

 Salvete Omnes,

a short post:

  a 1991 work on the ancient Roman legionary cavalrymen aka equites legionis & equites promoti - from Academia- by Michael Pavkovic, a dissertation completed under prof. Michael P. Spiedel.

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illustrations are provided by the chisels of Abraham de Bruyn, from Wiki Commons - :) 

The size of organization of the Equites Legionis and Euites Singulares

Valete

12 Caesars or De Vita Caesarum as imagined by Abraham de Bruyn

 Salvete Omnes,

 

have you ever read the De Vita Caesarum or the Twelve Caesars by  Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, Roman writer & historian?
Well, nowadays  you can easily do it - via Archive - eg this volume contains two translations of the famous work, and can be read via your computer or tablet, or phone. While this version is an audiobook - can be listened directly from Archive, or downloaded and listened on any of your electronic device. 

famous Abraham de Bruyn created this set of prints showing 12 Caesars of Svetonius - all mounted, their spirited steeds of the XVI century in full display of horsemanship and fine breeding of war steeds.

enjoy

Salvete

De Bruyn's Santa :)

Salve,
 Christmas in full swing and tomorrow will be Boxing Day, another occasion to be merry :) .
Amongst other things we made this bigos aka  hunter's stew from wild boar, roe deer, red deer and hare meat and a bit of Polish hunter sausage along with wild mushrooms from Poland.  Delicious :)
Found this interesting Santa from de Bruyn. It shows a Santa Aga of the famous Saint Nicolaus Corps of the Imperial Army of the North Pole - :) . Horse dyed in an Ottoman Turkish fashion...

Again, Merry Christmas to you all :)

De Bruyn's Scythian and Parthian and exotic horsemen

Salve,
continuing with the horsemen of master de Bruyn, today we have several prints showing imaginary horsemen of ancient times - Scythian and Parthian, and also two horsemen representing exotic, to de Bruyn's viewers, cultures, after all these images were drawn and printed in XVI century (Age of Exploration) when enterprising Europeans were in process of learning (through exploration, trade and war) about the lands of India and North Africa, while relaying heavily on the ancient Greek and Roman writers.

Scythian - allegory of one of these headhunting horsemen, not a historical depiction, most likely based on Herodotus of Halicarnassus description of the Scythians in his immortal works titled History. The wildness of this rider is underlined by showing his garments made out of furry pelts (animal skin). Using of wild animal pelts to cover themselves with was a trait of the Ottoman deli and other Balkan warriors, Polish winged hussars, and Hungarian hussars and kuruc.

Parthian - this is a rider executing the so called Parthian shot (going back to the Assyrian relief of IX century BC I presented in this post), otherwise he could be a contemporary steppe warrior or one from the armies of Poland or Ottoman Turkey

Maurus - also a Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) reference to the Numidian (in times of de Bruyn the Berbers of Algeria) horsemen that fought with javelins, while guiding their horses with their legs and using a bitless bridle, here shown as a sort of  cavesson

Indian (India) - well, the depiction of an Indian (Narsinga) horseman is also Classical, albeit most likely drawn from Luis de Camoes depiction of India in Os Lusiadas - accessible in 1776 translation  here

ciao
ps
if you are using GIMP - there is free publication - GIMP magazine via Ramon Miranda site

Abracham de Bruyn's Horses

Salve,
 I have been showing prints by de Bruyn and this print I find very appealing as it shows only horses, 5 powerful horses, with a stallion acting very assertively.

Perhaps these horses are just to show de Bryun's  mastery of the equine subject, I do not know.
well, enjoy - :)

Ottoman horsemen in de Bruyn's album

Salve,
finally we have come to see the Ottoman horsemen in Abrahm de Bruyn's art.

the sultan Murad III

Vizier pasha

Aga

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..sipahi

.. delil

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vassals:
Wallachians

Tatars

and enemies of Ottomans, the Persians:

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finis

Abraham de Bruyn's western European lancers

Salve,
 I would like to begin by wishing good luck to my friends and family on the East Coast of the US, as the hurricane Sandy  landed there last night.

Going back to Abraham de Bruyn and his prints, today a set showing armoured lancers of the Western Europe:
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 Tournament harness

.. another fully armoured lancer

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 Italian lancer

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.. French lancer

.. Netherlands' (Low Countries) lancer

..German standard bearer

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Interestingly de Bruyn shows no Spanish heavy lancer but only two bullfighting horsemen  riding à 'la gineta' style and a herreruelo or a pistol-and-arquebus (wheel-lock) armed cavalryman. Also he shows a Belgian armoured commander of cavalry that fought for the Spanish in the war in Flanders.
 a la gineta

Spanish herreruelo

eques Belga

and finally a drummer, as no cavalry could have been without music

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