Right-handed and a sinister Sassanian

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago - circa 2007-8AD, I drew, based on dr Patryk Skupiniewicz' research and guidance, some Parthian and Sassanian heavy armored cavalrymen/horsemen fro Karwansaray's Ancient Warfare issue.
I was browsing the net and came across this illustration

the image comes from Italian version of Focus - and the image was found on Pinterest

painted by Griorgio Albertini for dr Raffaele D'Amato's article for the above-mentioned Italian magazine publication. My horseman , drawn from the same source as the horseman of Alberini's, also can be found on Pinterest. 
Let us compare both in some detail 

so my Sassanian is right-handed, holding the 'Kushan' mace in his right hand, while the Italian version of my Saassanian is 'a sinister one' so to speak.
The placement of the sword  and bow case are in the right-handed position. 
Accrediting to the author's they replaced the helmet with the Emesa helmet mask with some changes with the collar.
Other than that I would say it is flattering to see one's artwork copied and/or interpreted, but it would be also nice to know they did this, especially since we have been in contact for many years now. 
alas, we all have our own fight to fight, don't we?
..

and my old sketch, before dr Patryk Skupniewicz corrected the 'reconstruction.' Nota bene I am sure we, especially dr Patryk's own scholarly research,  would have done a different reconstruction nowadays, lots of have changed in the Sassanian research and interpretations since then.

It has been long time ago since I done any Persians in this context so this year I will have a surprise for you, God willing

ps
I will have to write another post about publishing my illustrations without my consent nor even without crediting me as the author in an e-book released in the Polish e-book market  - but this I will write in some another post. 

ps'

and let us hope peace returns to our poor Earth - end of all wars, let us read about them as long gone events even if heroic, but for lov of God not actually fight them. 
Happy Ramadan to all

Valete

Patryk Skupniewicz - Ph.D.

 Salvete Omnes,

life goes on not matter where we stand, live or die -:) 

and on the happier note tomorrow at midday my friend Patryk Skupniewicz will  defended   his dissertation  thesis before the Siedlce university academic commission  (Zytnia Street 3) in Poland.

The title - Sassanian Armament and Horse-harness in Light of Armament of Europe and Asia 3rd-7th century AD' - under the supervision of prof. dr. Katarzyna Maksymiuk.

W dniu 28 lutego 2022 r. o godz. 12.00 w budynku Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczo-Humanistycznego w Siedlcach przy ul. Żytniej 39, w sali nr 1.6 odbędzie się publiczna obrona rozprawy doktorskiej mgra Patryka Norberta Skupniewicza: "Sasanidzkie uzbrojenie oraz rząd koński na tle uzbrojenia Europy i Azji III-VII wieku'.

Buona Fortuna - Varaz (the Boar)

Valete

Late Rome's Nemesis - oldies but goldies again

 Salvete Omnes, 

 

short entry  with a grat link if you may be a Persian history afficionado

my friend Patryk Skupniewicz - via academia platform - published his article from the Ancient Warfare Magazine from 2008.

The article - Late Rome's Nemesis - deals with the Sassanian side of the Persian vs Roman-Byzantine conflicts, and concetrates on the cavalry and the armored Persian asavaran aka knight horseman. It includes a number of my illustrations, painted on paper. 

I think I have not done any drawings of the Sassanid Persian horsemen, being the kontophoroi or hippotaxatoi, in a long time... 

and some sketches to add more light to this minuscule entry

Valete

British Museum, kontophoroi & academia

 Salvete Omnes,

a short entry -  

wiki image

  Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of our, very maligned these days, Western Civilization is the invention of the institution of  museum and its use for public enlightenment, stud, use  and enjoyment.

... the first public museum might have been the Capitoline Hill site, today occupied by the Capitoline Museums, in Rome, where in 1471 His Holy See pope Sixtus VI made available to the public the ancient Roman & Greek bronze sculptures. 

Generally the princes and people of power and means of Europe donated space and more importantly art and artefacts, so their collection could have been viewed by the public (like Vatican Museum  in Rome, 1506, Ambras Castle , Austria 1580; Amerbach Cabinet in Basel, 1671;  Besancon in France opened in 1690s;  or Kunstkamera in Saint Petersburg, Russia 1729  or Tower of London in 1660 or  British Museum 1759 etc).
 

So let us turn to the subject mentioned in the title of my post - on British Museum's page, along a good quality photo of the Parthian kontophoroi known as  object nr 91908 they also have provided the list of  biographic references about this piece of ancient  Western Iranian art. I made my own rendering of this plate - already published in this post here in 2018.

Among the listed works there is a citation to this article written by my friend and doctoral student Patryk Skupniewicz.

And, among images used by Patryk in his article there is my own rendering of the Isola Rizza plate warriors. See below a scan from the article.

 

The very same article  can be had from the Siedlce University Repositorium, the very university where under the guiding and helping hand of prof. Katarzyna Makysmiuk, Patryk has been doing his research and developing his doctoral thesis. Article was published in 2016 issue of Siedlce University publication 'Historia i Swiat.'

Nota bene Patryk's articles are a veritable gold mine of iconographic materials and can 'be mined away' at your own pleasure.

Valete

ps

I am going to brag a little for I have Ghirshman's 'Iran,' Nicolle's 'Sassanian Armies' and prof. Sekunda's 'Seleucid Army' - great lovely works from researches who devoted their lives to the pursuit of history, art  and the beautiful.

New Sassanian article by Patryk Skupniewicz

 Salvete Omnes,

my friend Patryk Skupnewicz uploaded his new article on the Academia platform.
Profusely illustrated with many Sassanian lion hunt exmaples and well argued it can be a blast. -:)

You can have it from here - along with his other scholarly articles.

and my old drawing from the Parthian-period tile showing an armored rider attacking a lion (the artefact is held at the British Museum and the photo, attached above, is available on Wiki Commons).

Valete

On the Shortfalls of Iconography in the Reconstruction of Swordsmanship. The Sasanian Case.

Slavete Omnes,

my good friend Patryk Skupniewicz made accessible his 2018 article on the shortfalls of iconography in reconstruction, in his article the reconstruction of swordsmanship of the ancient Persia.

In this context,  especially in last decade we have seen many works produced and published by the largest western military history  publisher - Osprey Military Publishing - where the issue of usage of ancient and medieval historic iconography as the source of scientific reconstruction has been controversial or even contested - see various forums like the Roman Army forum, or various medieval armor forums-groups on Facebook.

Anyway, enjoy this not short article by Patryk, with some illustrations to underline the argument.

 

 

 

by the way, on the academia platform there are multitudes of interesting works on the Eurasian steppe nomads, especially lately many Hsiung-nu related articles and longer works have appeared.
 
Valete