The need to remember

 Salvete Omnes

Saint George slaying the Evil dragon 

today is another anniversary of 9-11, already 14 years ago. The current tragic  events in American also need our attention, as there is a need to remember. We must slay the Evil dragons.

I remember the day mostly through imprinted in my memory images of burned and still smoldering paper bits,   those millions upon millions of snowflake-like office paper bits floating in the morning air, dimming the sunlight (it started as as a nice Indian Summer-like sunny day), settling on my jacket, hat, skin, pants and boots, as I walked from Manhattan Ave towards the shore of the northern Brooklyn Greenpoint & Williamsburg waterfront on the East River. 

And yesterday, September 10,  a good American, free speech advocate, defender of liberty and right to bodily integrity and choice,  defender of reason, family values and American Conservative, fine father and loving husband - Charlie Kirk - was murdered during his debate-meeting with the young college students  in Utah. He was the most promising young leader among the Conservative Americans... Someone robbed us and our children of a future leader and pathfinder.  So much sorrow...

And I still see the hidden-behind-the screen figure of a young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, dying from  stab wounds, inflicted by a  racial hatred-filled black man,  slumped below her seat on the floor on a mass transit train in Charlotte, NC. 

She came for a better future than in Ukraine, and found horrible death. Her American dream never took of...  so sad.

 
Nobody came to her rescue, indifference  of her fellow straphangers was terribly unsettling. 

All these crimes pale  when compared with what horrific scale of mayhem is happening in the Holy Land, or the deaths in the Ruso-Ukrainian war.   
Pacem Aeternam to all

Georgsaltar of Laurentiuskirche Scharenstetten

Valete

Saint Goerge patron saint of knights, soldiers and scouts

 Salvete Omnes,

as Spring progresses this Wednesday is the Feast Day of Saint George (in Polish Catholic calendar tomorrow, since today is Saint Wojciech/Adalbertus Day) .

Famous and legendary for his fight with the Dragon, the epitome of Evil and Darkness in the Christian tradition. St. George was the patron saint of the chivalry, soldiers and also the scouting movement (harcerstwo in Polish).

We will commemorate it with two paintings from the Greek Cretan School (under the Venetian rule) from Heraklion, Crete.

One from the XV century - Angelos Akotandos

and the second from the XVI century  Georgios Klontzas.

enjoy

Valete

Saint George & Saint Michael by Willem Vrelant et al.

 Salvete omens,

I admire and cherish the XV century European art, especially the manuscript illuminations.
So tonight, with Christmas Eve just one day away, I would like to share with you these several closeups of the splendid illuminations by Willem Vrelant & his workshop - from Google Project on Wiki Commons. 

Saint George - two illuminations (full page 1 & 2 here) 

Saint Michael - (full page)

a nobleman, presumably, hawking (full page) - the gray horse has a tail tied, beautiful blue tack and a noble steed appearance.

May the evil  be destroyed like the monsters lanced by the saintly knights  in these illuminations.

Valete

Saint George Feast Day 2023

 Salvete Omnes,

Carpaccio's Saint George and dragon

the feast of Saint George day -
another great occasion to look at some Medieval and early Renaissance lancers and their horses

and one from Novgorod - 1400-1450AD

Valete

Missale et horae ad usum Fratrum Minorum - Passion of Christ - Gallica

 Salvete Omnes,

in the spirit of the incoming Easter holiday  - and do pray for peace in Ukraine and to stop to the killing of Slavic Christians there..

Ad rem,
here we have another  great example of medieval manuscript illumination with exquisitely painted Passion of Christ - Missale et horae ad usum Fratrum Minorum -  from French National Library digital collections.

The Roman missal here  is a work of  Italian painter (perhaps authored  three manuscripts at Gallica)  and scribe/s who delivered this XIV century luxurious missal  - 

 

and two horse & rider details

Valete

Orava Castle and Juraj Gyorgy Thurzo

Salvete Omnes,

 

today we shall canter to one of the most picturesque places in Slovakia, where on a high rock above the Orava River there is a beautiful castle (very detailed history in Polish here). Known as Arwa or Orava, 

 

this castle became the seat of the Thurzo family, when Ferenec Frantisek Thurzo, a bishop of Nitra in Kingdom of Hungary, fell in love with a daughter of Mikulas Kostka/Kosztka,  left the priesthood and became thus the father of the Thurzo line from Orava.

The castle has inspired many artists - like our Polish Eljasz Radzikowski etc.

Thurzo coat of arms

bishop Ferenc Fratisek Thurzo coat of art, father of Gyorgy

Inside the castle there are some interesting and beautiful elements worth our glance or two...

 

Including this funerary monument to Gyorgy Juraj Thurzo, a power magnate of the Upper Hungary as Slovakia was known then, and between 1609-1616AD Thurzo was the palatine of Hungary.

sir Gyorgy aka George was a famous warrior and commander. In this monument he appears as a winged hussar commander

a little bit of a side view

a closeup on the shishak helmet, sabre hilt and the sabre belt, and gilded finishing of his chain-mail sleeve

Comes Gyorgy Juraj Thurzo on horseback - a print from the XVII century

in this print we see the splendor of this Hungarian nobleman's horse gear and also a horseman pick, a weapon going back to the Scythians and horse mounted warriors of Eurasia

more photos here.

From the inside of the castle come this beautiful imagery of Saint George fighting the dragon,

Saint George appears to be armed and armored like a typical winged hussar of the period, 2nd half of the XVI, early XVII century 

 

while this detail above, of a wall painting shows a hunting scenes (with dogs, falconry, with a short boar spear chasing wild boar) ,  perhaps comes from an earlier period.

Valete