Maciejowski Bible & medieval aquamanile circa 1250 from the MET

 Salvete Omnes,

 

a little excursion to the field of beautiful art and horses in that field, this being the Medieval art naturally.  

I love looking at the illuminations that complement the text of the Maciejowski Bible. Morgan Library's Maciejowski Bible ( created in the French realm for their saintly crusader king Louis IX, ended up in our Polish Kingdom and was a gift sent by our archbishop Bernard Maciejowski - Ciolek coat of arms - to shah Abbas I  of the Safavid Persia)  is just full of amazingly detailed imagery of that XIII century war horse horse & tack, weaponry and costumes notwithstanding.
so some examples for your viewing pleasures - violent as it may be.

 

there are saddles shown in several illuminations, including a driving saddle and tack:

Now, the aquamanile is another beautiful manifestation of the Medieval art and life. Below one of the most splendid examples of this water vessel made within the Holy Roman  Empire during the XIII century.

 

The MET has this article devoted to the subject of metal aquamanile in general, and their own collections of those artifacts.
While this Medieval scholar presents this article on the hand washing vessel that was the most sumptuous tool to the proper table manners, be it at the castle and rich burghers' houses.

Now, I ran across this article - on  a medieval helmet  from Lucera, Italy. There is some great iconography at the end of this article, showing knights and often their horses.

and last but not least, the unusual aquamanile from the XIII century Azerbaijan to be found among the Hermitage collections, the vessel going back to the traditional Iranian-Persian ancient traditions - its history and provenience.
valete

XIII century Poland's Kinghts and their horses

Czolem amici et viajeros,
I have been reading some and then some more on the Medieval knights and their horses. I have not posted anything on that period save for a small post on Grunwald AD 1410 and Zawisza Czarny. This will change after the Summer as I am planing to do some reconstructive drawings of the Polish (Piast and Pomeranian/Kashebe) princes and knights of the XIII (13th) century, the century which I find the most intriguing in the Poland's medieval era.
There are some iconographic images form the period, i.e., XIII century or shortly thereafter, eg famous Maciejowski Bible medievaltymes maciejowski bible   wiki Maciejowski_Bible.
One of the most famous images is the German miniature painting of our Piast Silesian prince and almost a Polish king, Henryk (Henry) Probus, included in the so called Manesse Codex wiki Codex Manesse   Manesse Codex heidelberg , a compilation of amazing miniatures showing poet knights of the Central Europe, withing the milieu of the high knightly German culture that at this time permeated or shined into the lands to the east and north of Germany proper.

Henryk Probus Henry IV Probus in full glory as a younger man (there is also  his famous sepulchral effigy from and I will write about it.

Some of my favorites of the Poland's XIII century:  Swietopelk II of Pomerania  Swantopolk II

and Boleslaw Pobozny of Wielkopolska  Boleslaw the Pious

here in one of his seals, showing our prince  slaying a winged dragon or a serpent-like winged monster (perhaps  a monster of Swietopelk's Pomerania).
... and finally I am very proud to show my own  9 years old son's drawing of prince Henryk Probus, done two days ago (color pencils), based on the famous Manesse Codex miniature:

well, let this be  my introduction... of sorts.