'Riding' on Vrancx 'Flying Knight'

 Salvete Omnes,

10 days ago I posted a very fine drawing by Sebastian Vrancx - Death on Horseback chasing a Flying Knight from Cleveland Museum of Art.

Today I would like to share these two images clearly based mostly on the 1630s drawing of Vrancx.

One is political pamphlet by Hendrik Hondius done sometime bnetween 1644 to 1672.

the this later print executed by Abraham Allard before 1713, based on Hendrik Hondius' image- says museum, . 

Clearly both prints were completely influenced by Sebastian Vrancx'  concept, composition and outright borrowing the horses and Death, changing some the flying knight. 
enjoy

Valete

Death on Horseback chasing a Flying Knight - S. Vrancx

Salvete Omnes,

from the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art -
a drawing (c. 1631AD) by the Flemish master Sebastian Vrancx- Death on Horseback chasing a Flying night.

there is a text that translated reads - No man is so clever, nor animal so swift, Death overtakes them all.

Splendid mustache on the flying knight

. The flying horseman does not appear as a Western (Flemish, Spanish, French or German) knight, but pretty much an Eastern European - Polish, Hungarian or Croatian light horseman. Although he does not have a cravat like the fables Croatian riders did, so perhaps a Polish or Hungarian equues. 

Curb-bit with some very long shanks

He is wielding with a nadziak or horseman pick, while Death fires a pistol at the flying rider.
He has a pair of pistols (we see one in a holster) and powder flask at the belt (and presumably a long firearm hanging on his pendant), a sabre at the side and a broadsword under the thigh. 
His booted feet are firmly placed in the typical Eastern European stirrups, and his half-calf boots end with rowel spurs.
All and all a Polish or Hungarian light cavalry officer or companion.

 

the end of his long firearm visible under the horse's belly

enjoy

Valete 

A Scottish pistol gift for Polish Vassal duke of Courland Frederic Kettler

 Salvete Omnes,

 

back to the XVII century - our northern European part of the Eurasian continent. 

 So Courland & Semigallia, a westerly region within today's Latvia, was a duchy and fiefdom of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569AD.  

In the early XVII century the duchy was ruled by two dukes Friedrich (Frederic)(1567- )  and his brother Wilhelm (1574-  ), sons of the former Grand Master of the Latvian Order Gotthard Ketler, the first ruler of this post-Livonian Order & Livonian Confederation statelet.  

Gotthard Ketler and his wife Anna (she was from the medieval pagan prince Niklot and his descendants Slavic Obodrite dynasts, then of Holy Roman Empire duchy of Mecklenburg, that survived there until 1918AD)

Dukes Friedrich and Wilhelm ruled during the time when Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into the more than 60 year period of wars against the Swedish Kingdom for the southern and south eastern Baltic provinces of Polish realm. You can, if you read Polish or by using translator, read Polish researcher  Mariusz Balcerek's work Ksiestwo Kurlandii i Semigalii w wojnie Rzeczypospolitej ze Szwecja w latach 1600-1629 (The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in the War between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden in years 1600-16290 published in 2012 - available for reading or download on Academia. There are good maps in this book, so it has many uses for any researcher. (I will point to pages in this book, writing Balcerek, Ksiestwo.. p..)

Duke Friedrich commanded a sizeable contingent of Courland's levy in the summer of 1605, when the  Swedish army landed in Courland. Duke had initiated action before our grand hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with his Commonwealth army appeared on the front. During the Kircholm campaign duke Friedrich joined Chodkiewicz' army with a number of cavalrymen - pistoliers aka reiters. Duke himself wrote about three banners/companies(300-400?) that he took to Kircholm. Also a number of noblemen horsemen (a 100?) from Plityn/Piltene, separate from duke's reiters, took part in the battle, before having crossed the difficult ford across Western Dvina River. Their participation was important and significant, and they gave examples of bravery, sacrifice and heroism, losing brave commanders and horsemen like Sacken,Meden and brothers Dietrich and Ernst Brunnawen  (Balcerek, Ksiestwo,p.102-121 ).

The Pistol armed cavalry was a norm during the last 60 years in the German-speaking theaters of war in Europe. It quite agreed among the researcher that the German reiters made this short firearm the weapon for cavalryman of the period and of the future. And this rather  short-range effective firearms served well when in close-quarters combat.  Reiters aka Pistoliers used wheel-lock weapons, and also other types available then like snaphance  pistols and carbine.

It is believed that duke Friedrich received a gift, a pair or brace of snaphance pistols, from king James I, king of England, Wales and Scotland in 1615. And that in 1616 duke of Courland gifted these pistols to elector of Saxony, prince Johan Georg.

One of the surviving pistols is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts  (NY, USA) arms and armor collection. And the other pistol is at Dresden, Federal Republic of German. From the MET from there we got some nice photos of this splendid pistol

 

another Scottish snaphance pistol from Chicago museum.

Valete

Vrancx from Krakow National Museum

Salvete Omnes,

in addition to the better quality scans/photos of the Warsaw Vrancx paintings there is available a  larger copy of the Vrancx painting from the National Museum at Krakow, Poland, 
The painting - Battlefield- can be viewed directly on the Krakow museum site

or

on Wiki Commons - link .

Enjoy

Valete

Vrancx from Polish National Museum

Salvete Omnes,

AD 2021 slow restart, but here it goes 

recently the National Museum at Warsaw, Poland, added some very nice large resolution photos of the some of Sebastian Vrancx' paintings - eg  Attack on a convoy.

Wiki Commons' user uploaded the artwork there too -  here is the link

to the Convoy painting.

 

Another painting is Assault on a town.  Wiki Commons also has a digital copy.

Lots of interesting information and ideas on these fine period painting.

Valete

Vrancx - winged horse

Salve,
let us hope the winter is over, but feeling a bit sinister  I would like to return to the winter pleasures  of the olden days, as these scenes were painted by our good Flemish friend Sebastian Vrancx.

ergo, Master Sebastian painted more than a few of canvasses showing Low Countries citizens engaging in some simple and others more complex  winter pleasures, including the art of driving a horse-draw sleigh.
It appears from the images that driving was done on ice a lot,  since very little snow covered the landscape of the cities and towns (when compared with the Central and Eastern Europe of the XVII century) and perhaps driving over the frozen canals was quite a pleasure and thrill - the British historian Simon Schama's  book 'The Embarrassment of Riches' provides plentiful  information on the daily lives and pleasures of the citizen and visitors in the Low Countries during that period (caveat! be forewarned - :) -   Daniel Snowman (2004),  "Simon Schama". History Today. 54 (7): 34-36, wrote about Schama's writing that it was "packed with evocative detail: rich fruit cakes crammed with raisins, currants, nuts and glacé cherries all.")

I especially like this 'winged' horse

'taken' from this canvass

 The harness used for the 'winged horse' looks a bit like the Old Polish arrangement. Perhaps one of the traders brought it back from Gdańsk while on the trading mission in the Baltic port.

enjoy

Vrancx' forlorn rider

Salve,
March is upon us - time flies. I had some hard disc problem, just had to buy a new SSD, the old new one is kaput, along with the entire content, including my digital sketches - c'est la vie...
So to start with this month, I want to share a detail from a painting by Sebastian Vrancx & Jan Breughel II showing a horseman being shot by a bandit or a marauding soldier.

This forlorn rider's horse, a powerful gray mount, is fully outfitted in accordance with the period tack - a long-shanked curb bit with a single set of reins, a breastplate and a crouper. The tack has additional adornments in a form of leather straps hanging from the crouper right behind the Baroque saddle. Note that the rider is mounted with long, with heavy metal stirrups.
There is a horseman's bag (German der Mantelsack) - a form of a saddle bag - strapped behind the cantle, better seen on the bay horse held by a bandit in the background. Horse is shod on all four hooves,

I hope to share more details of the Vrancx' paintings showing horses and riders, and wagons or carriages.
enjoy

Horse from Vrancx' fête galante

Salve,
 in addition to yesterday's horses one more fine image of a horse painted by Sebastian Vrancx,  his dismounted gentleman-rider is greeting a lady while a black (African) 'pachołek' (servant) holds his bay stallion.

 The bay horse is perhaps a Spanish stallion, his tack very fine (gilded curbbit, black velvet covered saddle with gold lace piping. gilded stirrups, three long tassels down each flank etc). The tail is braided and combed - a fine example of a Baroque riding horse schooled in the manage (perhaps indicated by this horse's posture, its tack and also by the riding whip in the hands of the servant).
Perhaps this mount is the ideal schooled horse for the gentleman-chevalier of any Western European court etc. 

You can enjoy the whole painting, very large scan, at the Denmark's National Gallery site


enjoy

Traveling ....

Salve,
I have been traveling a bit in old Europe, namely Italy, and thus this break in blogging
I will resume shortly..
Meantime, enjoy Sebastian Vrancx' horses, riders and a draft team of palominos - :)

and a Polish couple?

enjoy your Fall