Salve,
continuing with the horsemen of master de Bruyn, today we have several prints showing imaginary horsemen of ancient times - Scythian and Parthian, and also two horsemen representing exotic, to de Bruyn's viewers, cultures, after all these images were drawn and printed in XVI century (
Age of Exploration) when enterprising Europeans were in process of learning (through exploration, trade and war) about the lands of India and North Africa, while relaying heavily on the ancient Greek and Roman writers.
Scythian - allegory of one of these headhunting horsemen, not a historical depiction, most likely based on
Herodotus of
Halicarnassus description of the Scythians in his immortal works titled
History. The wildness of this rider is underlined by showing his garments made out of furry pelts (animal skin). Using of wild animal pelts to cover themselves with was a trait of the Ottoman deli and other Balkan warriors, Polish winged hussars, and Hungarian hussars and kuruc.
Parthian - this is a rider executing the so called
Parthian shot (going back to the Assyrian relief of IX century BC I presented in
this post), otherwise he could be a contemporary steppe warrior or one from the armies of Poland or Ottoman Turkey
Maurus - also a
Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) reference to the
Numidian (in times of de Bruyn the Berbers of
Algeria) horsemen that fought with javelins, while guiding their horses with their legs and using a bitless bridle, here shown as a sort of cavesson
Indian (India) - well, the depiction of an Indian (Narsinga) horseman is also Classical, albeit most likely drawn from
Luis de Camoes depiction of India in
Os Lusiadas - accessible in 1776 translation
here
ciao
ps
if you are using GIMP - there is free publication - GIMP magazine via
Ramon Miranda site
