Heinrich Aldegrever - engravings and drawings

 Salvete Omnes,

A short entry with lots of drawings and prints by Heinrich Aldegrever or Aldegraf (1502-1555, 1558/61) - German printmaker from Duchy of Westphalia (born Padeborn, lived in Soest) - influenced by Albrecht Durer.

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Mars

Marcus Curtius 

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it reminds me of Rawicz coat of arms 

      beautifully rendered Fortuna - 

Audaces Fortuna juvat

and a period curb-bit from the Fortuna print 

enjoy

Valete

Lecture on the armour - dr Toby Capwell

Salvete Omnes,

a nice treat to all armor aficionados and art historian types et al., - dr Toby (Tobias) Capwell is currently delivering a lecture - via The Wallace Collection page on Ytube - on the  armor made by the famous armorer  Konrad Seusenhofer et consortes at Innsbruck. 

Here an earlier video on the Seusenhofer armor samples at the Wallace Collection.
So if you can then join the lecture - :) 

Nota bene Toby Capwell et al.,  An Experimental Investigation of Late Medieval Combat with the Couched Lance via academia.edu .

Valete

Sketchbook from Baden-Wurttemberg

 Salvete Omnes,

via Szlafrokow Rozmowy group and its members comes yet another interesting visual  collection called a stambuch, a virtual treasure from the European early modern period - Stammbuch Johann Michael Weckherlin - that contains tons of hand drawn and painted coats of arms, portraits and illuminations from German lands drawn between 1500s-1600sAD.

there are many images there, but to share but a few could be a gateway for all to explore the collection:

you can download the entire collection in a pdf form, or study the images via the viewer provided by the Baden-Württemberg Archives. 

Valete

Happy Epiphany Feast Day

Salvete Omnes,
yet another Three Kings Day, AD 2010 - :)

I wish you  happy 'Trzech Kroli' aka 'Los Reyes Magos' or Feast of Epiphany holiday.

And taking this opportunity to  share with you  some paintings and details showing horses and horse tack.
First, you can take a look  at the Adoration painting  cerated by one of the late Northern Renaissance master painters  Jan Mostaert, from Haarlem in then Hapsburg Netherlands.
This Adoration was painted between 1520 and 1525 AD.



in this lady's portrait maestro Jan also painted a horse and Saint Hubertus' conversion


 While this painting contains no horse nor horse-subjects it is a spectacular one, -  but then de gustibus and coloribus non disputandum est - said ancient Romans..
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...and a German woodcut from 1503AD by the maestro Albrecht Durer himself



Valete

Tournament watercolors by annonymous

Salvete Omnes,
for the medieval and early modern manuscripts the French National Library known under its digital name as  Gallica is a fantastic treasure to explore.
This fine status can be exemplified by this collection: dated to 1530AD, collected, during the 1760s,  by the author of Munchausen Tales R.E. Raspe.
 vive la France - one almost wants to shout seeing all this good work the French librarians and French taxes are doing in furtherance of our common European patrimony.

The watercolors pertain or seem to pertain to the activities of dukes of Brunswick within the Holy Roman Empire (already in the throes of the religious and social wars provoked by the raise of protestant heresy or protestant revolution; naturally a view dependent on the position one holds regarding these early modern conflicts in Christian Europe) and show the glory and opulence of the early XVI century Imperial chivalry and knightly martial arts of that epoch.

Note the size of lances - especially the lance points: sharp and tournament -type , lance proportions and potion of lance handle;  and especially the richness of horse caparisons' paintings and adornments (the jingle bells) - imagine the number of painters and other artisans employed for this works.
We cannot say much about the steeds or destriers - they seem muscular and powerful, but for the lower legs they are well covered with trappings. Curb-bits seem the norm, while horses are shod with wide plate shoes.



 
 


Enjoy
Valete!

Durer, chivalry, horses et al

Salvete Omnes,
I love works by Albrecht Durer, long time ago I used to spend days looking at his art, copied some and just enjoyed many books about his art. Studying at the university setting allowed for countless hours in the art collection at the campus library, and living in NYC give one constant access to wonder collections of the NYC Public Library, MET libraries or some other museum libraries.


Wiki Commons and other digital project allow us to enjoy and study these images in often amazing detail without going to a museum or library, thus we can get so close to the image that no paper publication or museum visit made possible.
 
From time to time I revisit Wiki Galleries, and more often than not there are newer,, larger or even completely surprising scans of works, including life works of Durer.

I would like to start looking at some details or the entirety of many a wonderful image  conjured by this south German maestro's  brush, knife and pen, representing the culture of the Late Medieval Europe, especially central Europe. Especially since he did plenty of chivalry-themed subjects, kings and horses etc.
 this is but a short little entry, so more to come I hope.

and I would not be myself I didn't try to bring forth some Polish themes
so here are Jagellonian dynasty  kings of the early XVI century - of Polish Kingdom and Hungarian Kingdom (Hungarian Realm was soon to collapse under the Ottoman assault) from a print devoted the apotheosis of Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman  :

Sigismund of Poland

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Vladislaus of Hungary

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Louis of Hungary

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Valete.

Riders and horses - lords of Hallwil

Salvete Omnes,
a quick entry - pointing to an early XVII century source held in the Zurich library. The book was donated there by the Count Walther von Hallwil and his wife.

Lords of Hallwil: armed and armoured, at tournament, going hunting? and just taking a stroll through their countryside
 
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and I would like to point to the way they hold the reins in the last two illustrations:


neck reining?
Valete