Happy Easter- Wesolego Alleluja

 Salvete Omnes,

happy Easter - wesolego Aleluja Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!  Хрїсто́съ воскре́се! - Вои́стинꙋ воскре́се!, 

 Easter -Па́сха - has come, and tomorrow  the wet Smigus Dyngus (Easter Monday/Dyngus Day обливаний понеділок ), our  old Slavic pagan ritual.

Happy Easter, happy Passover, Joyful Smigus Dyngus - health, good fortune and prosperity to all; do bless and exchange your pisanki with family and friends -:) .

Shroud of Turin Christ

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May peace return to this Earth. 

Valete

All Saints Day - ancient holiday of ancestors & lights for Poles

 Salvete Omnes,

Landau altarpiece by Durer 

today all Poles around the world celebrate the day of ancestors or our own version of All Saints Day, deriving in part form our ancient pagan Dziady feast . In Poland and in the lands formerly being Polish there are famous cemeteries - Powazki in Warszawa/Warsaw, Rakowicki w Krakow/Cracow, Łyczakowski in Lviva/Lwow (now Ukraine), Rossa in Vinlus/Wilno (now Lithuanian), a smaller ones like the one in Dyneburg/Davgaupils, Latvia (from where some of my ancestors come) etc. 

In America we even have our own version of the Holy Jasna Gora Monastery Czestochowa Shrine with...  a very special Polish-American cemetery , where many important Polish-Americans are buried (near Doylestown, Pa).

Including these monuments to Ignacy Paderewski, the father of Polish post 1918 independence and many others

genius of piano and Polish raison d'etre 

World War Two ace 

Polish-American painter Adam Styka 

tonight the cemetery will be alive with lights of the candles and reflections of flowery arrangements and wreaths  etc.

pre-World War II celebrations by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczynski, nota bene murdered at Katyn in 1940

Like this one from Poland proper

Polish goverment, the current one pretending being conservative and traditional, prohibited celebration of All Saints Days during the C19 first 'season ... to their eternal shame.  

infamous 'regulation' in violation of law and custom & tradition 

There will be celebration at the Polish military cemetery at Monte Casino, Italy, and Grainville-Langannerie Polish war cemetery , Polish Air Force Memorial in London, Polish cemetery at Polonzekoy in Istanbul, Turkye, Polish Cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Tobruk etc.  Even Katyn War cemetery will be alight, in spite of terrible relations between Poland and Rus. Federation. And many other cemeteries containing remains of us, Poles, like the most tragic Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum site, the largest mass grave of Polish citizens in the world.
Too bad the poor Polish people tortured, abused and genocided  by UPA in Ukraine circa the period of 1944-45 will have no graves, no markers nor candles to illuminate their eternal resting places, as Ukraine prohibits finding their murdered and abused remains. Shame..
ps

I hope for peace and tranquility in the world, from Ukraine to the Holy Land, et al., as wars seem to be all over and growing..

again, Happy All Saints Day

valete

Orsza 1514-2023 arms and armor of non-hussars

 Salvete Omnes

I have written a little bit about the Orsza 1514 battle - today's is yet another anniversary - and various aspects of Polish military of the early XVI century, mostly from the  early winged hussars position in that battle and the greater conflict.. Today we are going to move away from the famous Orsza battle painting towards various sources from the period, predating the famous Warsaw National Museum piece.

So during this period the principal side arm of the Polish knights, men-at-arms, horsemen and of some infantrymen  still was a straight sword - 

Salet helmet, plate armor, 'messer sword' and long sword

many infantrymen were using a German messer - of the longer or shorter blade, with sabre-like hilt - like the one from Vienna

Speaking about the infantry they were using crossbows 

and early arquebus firearms. 

Rotameisters and aristocrats, men-at-arms and knights would have worn plate armor of the older, Gothic or Italian style, or the newer Maximilian's style - like this St. George in Durer's print

Non-hussar Polish cavalry could have looked more like the Durer's knight from his famous engraving

Cornelis Van Dalem's painted version

There is a tempera panel painting from a Krakow workshop  circa 1500, now held at the National Museum at Poznan, that shows various knights and men-at-arms in plate of this turn of the century period.

 

enjoy - to be continued 

by the way you can revisit my post about the Behem Codex - to see some period iconography from the Royal Court.

Valete

Lady and a landsknecht

 Salvete Omnes,
 a piece of beautiful equestrian art - from Cleveland Museum of Art - to start your day or to close your day (as we all come from various time zones).

you can download from the museum's page a much higher resolution 

and the bit and bridle of the horse - clearly a curb bit.

 MET in NYC also has a print of this woodcut. - here.

enjoy your summer day

Valete

Apocalypse 2 - Durer

 Salvete Omnes,

so war, conquest, famine and death ride on in so many parts of the globe - foremost in Mexico, Ukraine, African and Asian continent

and now let us look at Durer's Four Horsemen - 

big, fat articles on Wikipedia

so just images - 

Peace must prevail in Ukraine

Salvete

Happy Epiphany Feast Day

Salvete Omnes,
yet another Three Kings Day, AD 2010 - :)

I wish you  happy 'Trzech Kroli' aka 'Los Reyes Magos' or Feast of Epiphany holiday.

And taking this opportunity to  share with you  some paintings and details showing horses and horse tack.
First, you can take a look  at the Adoration painting  cerated by one of the late Northern Renaissance master painters  Jan Mostaert, from Haarlem in then Hapsburg Netherlands.
This Adoration was painted between 1520 and 1525 AD.



in this lady's portrait maestro Jan also painted a horse and Saint Hubertus' conversion


 While this painting contains no horse nor horse-subjects it is a spectacular one, -  but then de gustibus and coloribus non disputandum est - said ancient Romans..
                                                       ***
...and a German woodcut from 1503AD by the maestro Albrecht Durer himself



Valete

Durer- Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi)

Salvete Omnes,
so we are in the brand new AD 2020, back in the saddle to to speak.
so starting I would like to turn your attention to one of the Durer's most important works, namely, the  wooden panel from the Uffizi Museum (Florence, Italy) - titled Adoration of the Magi, commissioned by the Saxon prince and elector of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick the Wise.
Religious topic and masterful execution, as you can see in this image from the Wiki Commons

  this beautiful painting has a bit of detail that may be of interest to us - maestro Durer took pains to paint a group of horsemen in front of and behind  the ruined arch.

the German-late Gothic  horseman, although completed in AD 1504 the equipment, especially the high saddle with round skirts, has the look of the Gothic horse tack  - note the horse whip, double reins, curb-bit, wide cinch, cover over the rump. The breastplate, headstall and reins are of one uniform design. The muscular and very much a war horse is shown in collection and perhaps showing off its training and athletic ability. This grey stallion is shod and with a long tail, but no forelock.
 
another German horseman his headgear covered with ostrich plumes

Stradiot or Albanian or perhaps even Turkish lancer with a Balkan? lance with a red pennon, and some sort of a Balkan? shield (painted a bit grotesque).
also a curb-bit with double reins, simple war bridle, and some sort of leather? barding covering the sides of this steed.

rider with a large banner from beyond the arch
 

Interestingly, the black Wise Man Saint Balthazar appears to have the so called Mercury wings with spurs?

Valete