Jozef Brandt - Prayer in the Steppes, and 'el Apagon' in Iberia

 Salvete Omnes,

a short, quick entry as the Blackout (el Apagon) in the Iberian Peninsula still persists in many places - my prayers for the people - remember, your cash is king, not the digital wallets and other digital nonsense. 

and two paintings by Jozef Brant - Prayer in the Steppes - which may represent the story of taking of the Holy Icon of the Armenian Mother of God from the Kamieniec Podolski Armenian Cathedral in the face of the Ottoman Turkish invasion in 1672AD.

the special atmosphere of this work - neither night, nor twilight, nor the early morning, where mysterious things may occur to people and animals and even the nature. 
all the best

Valete

Tibetan Saddle XV-XVII centuries - MET

 Salvete Omnes,

a beautiful example of the Central Asian, Tibetan, horse equipment from the MET. 

The saddle is dated to the XV-XVII centuries, when Tibet had secular monarchies - the Rinpungpa (1435-1565) and Tsang (1566-1641). 

Dimensions: H. 13 3/4 in. (34.9 cm); L. 23 3/8 in. (59.4 cm); W. 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm)

this saddle was on display during the famous exhibit - The Warrior of Himalayas - from 2006. The pillow that would cover the seat is absent/missing. 

In Polish saddlery tradition  we call this saddle type a jarczak (yarchak).

Valete

Stefano Della Bella, Disegni e pensieri originali (schizzi a penna) - Polish horse & horsemen

Salvete Omnes,

a quick but full of wonderful sketches in pen and ink by an Italian maestro of the XVII century.

Polish costume - zupan, delia and kolpak

 Stefano Della Bella, Disegni e pensieri originali (schizzi a penna) from Florence, available on Archive .  Sketches were drawn  in Rome during the 1630s, and can be associated with the so called Ossolinski entry into Rome. 

I corralled for you the Polish horse and horsemen, ad a few Ottoman & Safavid Persian portraits drawn by maestro Stefano:

  

outfitted horse with a jarczak saddle and splendid bridle 

tying of the sash, Polish style, also shaved head with a hair lock, sabretache 

..

enjoy 

Valete

Turkish Horses - J.G. Pforr

 Salvete Omnes,

it seems to me that we have one lazy Friday of the dog days of this summer, save for the attempted assassination of the former POTUS in Pennsylvania last Saturday, a d here we are continuing with the horses of brushes and pencils by Johann Georg Pforr. 
today we will look at the Turkish horse - or the horse of the Ottoman Empire, the multiethnic and multireligious imperial realm, in the second half of the XVIII century in a serious eclipse, both militarily and economically. 

Two horses, of which the grey is saddled with a type of saddle known as jarczak(Jarcak)

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details of the legs and hooves

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Jarczak saddle, with an obergurt (ober-sattelgurt) or ryngort (leather straps with cinch arrangement holding the saddle with a shabraq on horse's back) 

and finally, what our good friend The Sportsman's Dictionary had to say about the Turkish horse circa 1770AD- 

Valete

Old Polish horse & tack - Certamen Equestre

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I posted this description of a Polish horse breed as observed by an English traveler (1737AD) -

 'These are much like the Danish horse, and are generally about the size of the Spanish Jennet, are of a middle stature, but their limbs are much better knit together, and are of a much stronger make, than the Spanish ones. This horse is in many respects, like our natural English horse, except that their head are somewhat slenderer, like the Irish hobby; but their necks and crests are raised upright, and very strong; their ears are very short and small, and their backs capable of bearing any weight; their chines [shins] are broad, their hoofs are judged to be as good as those of any horse in the world.

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They are very good for a journey, and will endure long ones, with more ease than any other horse.' 

So today I am re-posting this short description along with the images of  horses, their tack and riders' costumes from the famous XVII century Certamen Equestre collection which is  a set of prints commemorating the Swedish royal court martial festivities (see my other posts on these prints and their content via Labels) - images edited from Gallica French National library digitized collection.

enjoy

valete

Notes Upon Russia - Sigismund von Herberstein - saddles etc

 Salvete Omnes, 

 

ten years ago I posted some quotes from Sigismund Herberstein's Notes Upon Russia et al. (Major's Translation)  then and now available on Archive.
Today I am going to add more text from that translation and the plates from the Latin original - wiki gallery.

 

Muscovy two-headed eagle is high on the news totem-pole these days, and their deeds are absolutely  not of kind and pleasant type to be proud of, but quite on the contrary  they bring death and destruction, misery and cold and perhaps hunger...

Saddles - of two types

***
 and may God and good willed people bring peace to the people of Ukraine

Valete