Adoration of Magi - Art Institute of Chicago

 Salvete Omnes,

continuing on the subject of the Epiphany and Adoration of  Magi in the pre-modern arts, a tondo by Raffaelo Botticini (1474-died after1520) from the Art Institute of Chicago. 

this tempera was painted circa 1495 and reflects equestrianism of the Florentine, Tuscany, and northern Italy styles and preferences for horses and tack. 
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enjoy

Valete

Condottiere - Horseman from Santa Anastasia , Verona - International Gothic

 Salvete Omnes,

this evening we will canter quickly to Verona, where inside the Catholic church of Santa Anastasia there is a funerary monument to Cortesia Serego (1335-386AD), a condottiere captain in the Veronese army.

Cortesia II Sergo, his son, ordered the monument to be sculpted  by Pietro di Nicolo Lamberti and painted by Michele Giambono.

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San Crisogonom, an armored horseman astride a destrier,  painting by Michele Giambono

enjoy 

Valete

Horses from XV century San Sebastian piantings

 Salvete Omnes,

Spanish panel - Saint Sebastian and Saint Fabian

Panta rhei -said Heraclitus. So  August 2025 is ending, king of colder and rainier than ususal.
I always enjoy the XV century European art, especially paintings. 
Saint Sebastian (protector or defender against plague etc, patron of archers and athletes) was a popular saint of the Catholic Church during the period, many altar pieces had been painted during that great century, when Europe moved from chivalry to global exploration (reaching the Americas and South and Eastern Asia).

German altar painting from Nuremberg, 1487AD

a chestnut with a star & stripe, and a snip on its face (three socks are visible) , and a grey in a background. Horses have no forelocks

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Master of the Holy Kinship the Younger painted this retable. 

grey horses, and one sorrel on the opposite side

German painting - perhaps  the very end of the century

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Andrea Previtali - Saint Sebastian with a donor in a background

the donor is portrayed   training  his dextrarius , destrier being a  grey horse, while another destrier bay or chestnut horse held in the background by a groom.

enjoy

Valete

Semana Santa in full swing - with a Crucifixion by Conrad Laib

 Salvete Omnes,

let us pray for peace and end of human suffering around the world as the Easter holiday is upon us.

we, in the Catholic Christianity, are in the Semana Santa - Holy Week/Swiety Tydzien, aleady in the third day of this last day of Lent.
Last year I did a post  about Semena Santa in Spain and Palm-frond like arrangements - you can take a look here.

And  I would like to share this Crucifixion by Conrad Laib (c.1410-1460), active in Salzburg, Holy Germany Empire. 

Apart from the religious subject matter and artistic value, this work contains lots of information about the horses, horse tack and armor and even weapons of the era.

Bridles, spurs, stirrups, bits - a bonanza of material culture .

here clearly a white mule, animal for clergy, with a very sumptuous bridle an saddle  

a do watch again the famous masterpiece - 'The Passion of the Christ' by Mel Gibson (or any other film about the Passion of Christ) 

Valete

1st post of 2024 - let the new journey begin

 Salvete Omnes,

so we have made it to this brand New Year - 

and from the Tristan en prose manuscript circa 147 comes this illumination showing a lance duel between two Arthurian knights  - I have chosen this illumination for a sort of  'allegory' of the New Year' victory over the Old Year

Plate armor, lances, great war horses, saddles and harness including curb-bit etc

 

so the New 2023 Year  has sailed - let us hope it will be a good journey for all of us on this God given earth 

ps

for my Polish fellow-travelers - prof. Jacek Kowalski about Old Poland's Christmas Holiday Season traditions - from foods to carols.

Valete

Happy Easter - Passion, Jan van Eyck & horses

 Salvete Omnes,

 

Christos Anesti (Χριστός Ανέστη) - Christ has risen -  Alleluia - Christians unite against the evils of this world - Wesołego Alleluja

Chora church fresco

and with that happiness in the hindsight some Jan van Eyck's Passion themes

MET- Crucifixion and Last Judgement

 greatness of Jan van Eyck brushes 

Venice Crucifixion

and another beauty - from Budapest National Museum of Fine Arts, Hungary -   painted after van Eyck's work in the early XVI century

All the best, health and joy, and may peace return to Ethiopia, Ukraine and the Holy Land..

Valete

Hundeshagenscher Codex crica 1440AD

 Salvete Omnes,

November evenings can be a longish affair for sure, so let us enjoy some high Middle-ages manuscript art from the German lands. And this 1440sAD manuscript  of the Nibelungelied or the Song of Nibelungs epic poem- and is wonderfully illuminated with XV century miniatures - full of vivid colors, complex scenes, and caparisoned destriers, warhorse, palfrey horses, tournaments, damsels, officials  and armored knights and ...other riders. 

The manuscript is held at the National Library in Berlin - nota bene it was named after a XIX century German librarian and art historian Helfrich Bernhard Hundeshagen, who actually worked on preserving and restoring this fine manuscript.

Valete