Emperor Ferdinand III in portrait paintings

 Salvete Omnes,

 

wearing a very splendid riding coat known as a cassock/casaque

January 2023 almost over - so I am winding up this month with a collection of portraits showing Ferdinand III who was the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia (Bohemia included  most of the duchies of Silesia, with the Piast dynasts slowly dying out during this reign ) .

Ferdinand III (1608-1657) was an able military commander during the XXX years war, especially famous for the battle of Nordlingen, won together with his cousin cardinal-infante Ferdinand of Austria over the protestant armies.

during his life Ferdinand III  was subject of a number of portraits, and some of them show him in great armor, on horseback and in this other realm national costume - Kingdom of Hungary attire.

by all appearances this warhorse might be a Spanish one

King of Bohemia and Hungary

great Hungarian attire - including a delia riding coat

Nota bene emperor Ferdinand was married first to Maria Anna of Austria, his cousin.

and his second wife was Eleonora Gonzaga princess of Mantua etc - their 2nd daughter was a Queen of Poland etc.

and an allegorical  print from his reign 

valete

Magi by a Jewish Cartographer from Aragon

 Salvete Omnes,

continuing with the theme of Magi in the spirit of this holiday, I would like to bring to your attention the map and miniatures by a team of father and son, Cresques Abraham  and  Jehuda Cresques,   Jewish cartographers from Palma de Mallorca, Crown of Aragon, working under the protection of the kings of the Crown of Aragon.

The atlas - circa 1378AD - digitalised and available on FN library Gallica, shows among others our 3 kings in route to Bethlehem in Holy Land (nota bene it is located in Palestine, Western Asia -:) ). 

Horses, camels and riders - lovely details, all done  inside the world of XIV century map

then there is Polish realm - Crown of Poland and various Piast duchies of Silesia and Masovia, and Kingdom of Bohemia, and Hungarian Crown  and Holy Roman Empire.

Valete

Trutina 1110AD - my new book cover

 Salvete Omnes,

May 2021 is ending fast, and the InfortEditions publisher from Poland has published another Polish medieval history work - titled Trutina * X 1110, it is a study  of our bellicose and pious Piast ruler Boleslaw Krzywousty (Wrymouth)  and his army's  expedition to Bohemia in 1110AD. The books represents the research done a young historian, horse archer and reenactor Jakub Juszynski. 

According to the author the Polish army was composed of lightly armed horse archers and those horse archers were instrumental in defeating the Czech warriors at Trutina. 

Here is the cover I painted on my computer with Krita, GIMP and MyPaint, as allowed by the publisher on their bookstore site - wanax.pl

 

Valete

New medieval painting from Dariusz Bufnal's atelier

 Salvete Omnes,

I have been a friend of one hell of a painter (and musician) from Poland - messer Dariusz Bufnal from Wrocław, Poland - Facebook page here.

I have Dariusz' permission to show on my blog one of his latest brushwork, in his maker's intent and execution  sort of a  window into the XV century borderlands of Silesia, Lusatia, Bohemia and Saxony. Where Polish (Silesian Poles), Czech, Sorbian, German, and Pomeranian nobility and noble clans intermarried and mixed in the plethora marriage and political alliances, adopting language and coats of arms.
The castle-tower and medieval manor of Witkow, Lubusz land and today in part a Polish voivodeship(most lays in the Federal Republic of Germany) belongs to that medieval borderland tradition.
In this painting, one of three painted for the current owners of the castle-tower,  provides a depiction of the Central European  knights from the late XIV and early XV centuries.

   here, on canvas,  we have two brothers von Warnsdorf, Frantzko and Nickel, and their retinue in process of leaving their castle to take part in the Great War 1409-11 ( the Teutonic Order, Sigismund of Luxembourg and their  knightly guests with retinues  against the  Jagiellonian realm - kingdom of Poland and grand duchy of Lithuania) . They have the same coat of arms  - Leliwa - as Polish Kingdom and Silesian duchies clans. In the history of the castle you can read why von Warnsdorfs had Leliwa coat of arms.

The painting was executed in oils on canvas.
Dariusz Bufnal pinxit and all copyrights et al.
ps

maestro Dariusz also painted plates for Trzy Swiaty Sredniowiecza, a study-book on the medieval castles and fortresses from Lower Silesia, written by Grzegorz Kiarszys - Dariusz' Art Station link to some of those plates.

Valete

Jensky Codex - glory of Bohemian Late Medieval Art

Salvete Omnes,
a quick entry - medieval illuminations, late gothic armor and Jan Hus and Jan Žižka.

so without much ado , from the late medieval Kingdom of Bohemia ( since 1471AD ruled by Jagiellon king Wladyslaw II aka Vladislav Jagellonský) comes the so called Jensky (Jena) Codex painted by a master Janíček Zmilelý z Písku, who worked in Prague from the late 1400s until 1520s AD, and the codex is dated between 1490-1510AD.


 and the battle scene showing the Hussites fighting the German crusaders - see the Hussite wars page on Academia , eg Religion and Violence during the Hussite Wars. Although the painter showed the scenes from the first quarter of the XV century yet he painted the combatants using the last quarter of the XV century arms and armor, including the horse tack too.
We are rewarded here with the perfect lance technique - nota bene the main lancer with the couched lance is using the arret or lance rest.
 

On Jan Hus and his relationship with Polish Crown and Polish nobles see this article.

On another medieval Bohemian codex - you could read this article.

the whole manuscript can be viewed here
Valete