Stalking horse & fowling piece ca 1674AD

 Salvete Omnes,

today is Sunday, and perhaps a good day to bring your attention to hunting, especially hunting birds with a fowling piece and a horse.
In this book ''The gentleman's recreation in four parts' 1674 ''- 

inside we can find several pages devoted to a subject of a fowling gun and a stalking horse.

the  book on horsemanship - Georgii Simonis Winterii Bellerophon - I linked on my blog has three plates showing  training a stalking horse for such hunts.

In our part of the European woods,i.e., Central and Eastern Europe of the XVII century,  there was a town, then a Duchy of Cieszyn/Tesin, part of the Bohemian Crown, known as Cieszyn/Tesin on the river Olza, where gun smiths had been producing amazingly beautiful fowling pieces since the XVI century. 

I wrote about one of these Cieszynka Tscheshinke/Teschinke guns  - the gun of our king Sigismund III - one with the winged hussars on its sides. 

Fowling pieces in America, fowlers and first guns made in English America - a pdf.

Valete

Alfred Jacob Miller - hunting on the High Plains - elk or wapiti

 Salvete Omnes,

a little visit to the High Plains  and the hunting of various beast, be it on horseback or on foot- from ubiquitous bison, plentiful elk to mountain sheep and fleetest antelopes - as shown in the sketches and paintings by Alfred Jacob Miller. 

Today just our American wapiti aka  the elk -  

From Miller's notes on the elk -

'The hunters are taking a flying shot at a herd of elks as they pass, for running the Elk is useless, their speed far outstripping that of the horse. The stratagems resorted to. are - creeping to the point of bluff when they are known to be lying under it; heading them off when practicable; forcing them into a river; or lying concealed at some point where they are likely to pass. When the buffalo became scarce, we found the Elk to be most desirable acquisition on the prairie larder, more from the quantity of meat than the excellence as food, as we considered it inferior to either Buffalo, Bear, Mountain Sheep, or Antelope'
 'the Indians manufacture a beautiful buckskin  from their hides, very soft and strong, which they make leggings, giving it a rich tint by a peculiar process of smoking; -they form  of it also sacks to carry their pemnican and jerked meat, and from the horns they make the most efficient bows. [...] The herds of elk  rarely number more that four or 500 [elk] [...] and they were very shy and wild.'

ps

driving from New Mexico into Colorado across the mountains I have seen large herds of elk grazing on the Rocky Mountains' slopes... 

Valete

Saint Hubertus polyptych - Maurice Denis

 Salvete Omnes,

Again, happy Saint Hubertus Feast day - Darz Bor to all hunters as the  old Polish hunters' saying. And today one more painting on the St. Hubertus theme.

A polyptych by Maurice Denis - The Legend of Saint Hubertus (1895-97). Monsieur Denis, an ardent Christian and humanist, who was at the time a member of Les Nabis group,  was an accomplished master of fine arts through and through, painter of frescoes drawing on the European painting traditions.  This painting it is said to celebrate the family and faith.

Nota bene  this work is simply beautiful beyond words...l

Valete

Favila de Asturias' Last Kiss

 Salvete,

 

The occasion seems apt - the Valetnine's Day - so let us look at this XII century Spanish art showing king Favila de Asturias (son of king Don Pelayo and the 2nd king of the Kingdom of Asturias) and his wife Foiluba.
The Christian Reconquista (reconquest) of the Iberian peninsula from the Moorish occupation started with these Visigothic Asturian dynasts, with the legendary battle of Cavadonga, 722AD.  

From his capital Cangas de Onis Don Favila ruled but for two years, and in 739 was killed by a bear while hunting. He was burried

At the defunct monastery of San Pedro de Villaneuva (presently a parador aka hotel) there is Romansque art showing this Asturian king and his, in the spirit of Valetine's Day, beloved wife.

and there is a capitel carving  showing the royal couple in their last farewell

 and another capital sculpture showing hunters (XII century attire etc) hunting lions? or bears?

King was buried inside the small church he had founded - the  Santa Cruz de Gangas de Onis, and where he wife was also buried with him. but this temple   was destroyed and rebuilt twice (in 1632 and during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, when local Republicans? or Communists? destroyed the building to show the ancient dolmen that had been an integral part of the Christian temple) in its history, . But no trace of the  earthy remains of these royals can be found nowadays. 

 

enjoy your Valentine's Day

Valete

Jaroslav Věšín - Czech painter in Bulgaria

 Salvete Omnes,

 

today let us loot at the gallery of works by a great genre painter from the Slavic lands, i.e., Bulgarian kingdom, Czechia and Slovakia (then part of the Hungarian Kingdom).

  so this pre-World War I Czech painter, Jaroslav Vesin, studied in in Prague with prof. Antonin Lhota, and then in Munich (with Jozef Brandt and  Karl von Piloty et al.) . He was one the founders of the painting school in Sofia, Bulgaria where he remained until his death in 1915AD.

so this is a vibrant country life - robust peasant life and some hunting

Valete