Some horse related drawings by E. Viollet-le-Duc

Salvete Omnes,

dog days of the summer - I 'corralled' for  us some medieval equestrian drawings by the XIX century French architect and mastermind of many restoration project  Eugene E. Viollet-le-Duc

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Valete 

Death on Horseback chasing a Flying Knight - S. Vrancx

Salvete Omnes,

from the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art -
a drawing (c. 1631AD) by the Flemish master Sebastian Vrancx- Death on Horseback chasing a Flying night.

there is a text that translated reads - No man is so clever, nor animal so swift, Death overtakes them all.

Splendid mustache on the flying knight

. The flying horseman does not appear as a Western (Flemish, Spanish, French or German) knight, but pretty much an Eastern European - Polish, Hungarian or Croatian light horseman. Although he does not have a cravat like the fables Croatian riders did, so perhaps a Polish or Hungarian equues. 

Curb-bit with some very long shanks

He is wielding with a nadziak or horseman pick, while Death fires a pistol at the flying rider.
He has a pair of pistols (we see one in a holster) and powder flask at the belt (and presumably a long firearm hanging on his pendant), a sabre at the side and a broadsword under the thigh. 
His booted feet are firmly placed in the typical Eastern European stirrups, and his half-calf boots end with rowel spurs.
All and all a Polish or Hungarian light cavalry officer or companion.

 

the end of his long firearm visible under the horse's belly

enjoy

Valete 

The need to remember - Charlie et al.

 Salvete Omnes

Saint George slaying the Evil dragon 

today is another anniversary of 9-11, already 14 years ago. The current tragic  events in American also need our attention, as there is a need to remember. We must slay the Evil dragons.

I remember the day mostly through imprinted in my memory images of burned and still smoldering paper bits,   those millions upon millions of snowflake-like office paper bits floating in the morning air, dimming the sunlight (it started as as a nice Indian Summer-like sunny day), settling on my jacket, hat, skin, pants and boots, as I walked from Manhattan Ave towards the shore of the northern Brooklyn Greenpoint & Williamsburg waterfront on the East River. 

And yesterday, September 10,  a good American, free speech advocate, defender of liberty and right to bodily integrity and choice,  defender of reason, family values and American Conservative, fine father and loving husband - Charlie Kirk - was murdered during his debate-meeting with the young college students  in Utah. He was the most promising young leader among the Conservative Americans... Someone robbed us and our children of a future leader and pathfinder.  So much sorrow...

And I still see the hidden-behind-the screen figure of a young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, dying from  stab wounds, inflicted by a  racial hatred-filled black man,  slumped below her seat on the floor on a mass transit train in Charlotte, NC. 

She came for a better future than in Ukraine, and found horrible death. Her American dream never took of...  so sad.

 
Nobody came to her rescue, indifference  of her fellow straphangers was terribly unsettling. 

All these crimes pale  when compared with what horrific scale of mayhem is happening in the Holy Land, or the deaths in the Ruso-Ukrainian war.   
Pacem Aeternam to all

Georgsaltar of Laurentiuskirche Scharenstetten

Valete

Two Riders - R. Savery - National Galleries of Scotland

 Salvete Omnes,

a new month has started and the Dog Days of the Summer have started as well - so let us start .

National Galleries of Scotland graciously allow us to share their digitized art collections, and one of period gems is this drawing by Roelandt Savery. (crica 1605-10AD)

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Note that both riders are mounted on stallions and judging from their conformation these warhorses are of 'eastern', lighter, type. 

Are they the Old Polish kozaks cavalry ? Well, difficult to say - Savery had lived in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia ( Austrian Hapsburg Empire) at least since 1604AD. But also he traveled down south to Croatia (then part of the Hapsburg Kingdom of Hungary) and Croats, Serbs of Krajina and Hungarians (including various ethnic horsemen of that Kingdom) used costumes, armor, weapons and horse tack similar to their Polish counterparts, and the preference to ride stallions and geldings instead of mares. Savery was a master of portraying of these East-Central European warriors, so just let us enjoy the drawing.

enjoy

Valete

Easter AD 2025

 Salvete Omnes,

Raphael Santi's Resurrection , currently in Brazil 

it is a beautiful Sunday - Easter Sunday 

happy Easter - wesolego Aleluja, Chrystus zmartwychwstał! Prawdziwie zmartwychwstał  - Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! 

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and a very interesting 1420s (XV century) northern German painting of Crucifixion, unknown master

. we can observe wide (woven?) cinches,  richly decorated bridles and tack,  dyed-leather large pommel and cattle saddles with skirts, rowel spur, long-leg ridding with heavy stirrups, and their riding attire of  the period. The gray stallion has his forelock gathered and tied up (Eastern or steppe fashion).

enjoy

Valete

Francois Clouet - Royal horses and riders

 Salvete Omnes,
long time ago I posted this painting by Francois Clouet (1515-72) - a French master, who was skilled in water media as gouache and oil painting. 

Dauphin Henri II Valois (1519-1559), 1543AD - at Menil Collection, Texas

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monsieur Clouet painted several more paintings of French Valoise dynasts on horseback. 

First, the splendid Francis I (1497- died 1547) - oil on oak panel 

mounted on a splendid buckskin stallion, perhaps a Neapolitan horse?

Francois I was defeated at the battle of Pavia 1525, during the Italian wars

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then his portrait of Henri II on a Neapolitan stallion?

at Upton House, National Trust, UK

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this equestrian portrait of Henri II is housed at MET - NYC.  Attributed to Couet's workshop. - king, in a comfortable and rich riding attirle, appears as a very engaged rider, with a horse whip in hand, perhaps in a style of the Italian riding style of Grisone or Fiaschi. Perhaps there is more symbolism to this painting, as it differs from the three above that in those the dynasts are portrayed as  chivalrous knights in 3/4 armor  and masters of the realm.

canvas on wood panel later transferred to canvass. 

this  chestnut stallion appears also of a Neapolitan - spirited and showing off in a trot or even a passage?

Stallion's harness is splendid, perhaps silver or of metal textile while the saddle is perhaps of the cloth of gold - silk, gold and silver. The saddle has two cinches, woven in the same ornament pattern as the saddle,.

king Henri II died after getting eye-to-brain injury from a splinter hurled from a broken lance wielded by his opponent count de Montgomery of the Scottish Guard during a joust 10 days earlier.

enjoy

Valete