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

Johann Georg Pforr - Polish horses

 Salvete Omnes,

J.G. Pforr (1745-98) was active in Western German state of Hesse-Kassel. Being a son of a tenant farmer, he went to work in a mine, injured there he then was hired as a porcelain painter, and from that factory he went on to become a full-time painter. 
Influenced by Philips Wouwermann, Paulus Potter, and  other Dutch painters, he was called a German Wouwermann by his fellow countrymen. Johann Pforr died too early, in his 55 year, and he art remains.

curious bit and kind of interesting headstall & the third rein 

from his 'stable' of horse drawings and paintings comes this piece-  Polish horses of his era. This artwork is held at  Städel Museum in Frankfurt on Main River, western German state of Hesse.

very typical Polish headstall and bridle of the period 

A rider dressed in Polish traditional costume - zupan and kontusz or some other overcoat  and rogatywka/konfederatka czapka or headgear - mounted on a bay? horse holding a paint horse

I wonder if the rider's costume was taken from some Saxon archive, as in Saxony there were Polish-Lithuanian Tatar lancers or uhlan/ulan regiments until 1763. 

enjoy

Valete

Gabriel Raspe and his Polish-Lithuanian Cavalry circa 1775

 Salvete Omnes,

a little bit about our Polish cavalry circa 1775. 

in 1781 Gabriel N. Raspe (1712-1785) of Nuremberg published a book devoted to the Polish Royal Army, its organisation and uniforms -
Accurate Vorstellung der Königlich Pohlnischen Armee nach der auf dem in Jahre 1775 [..].

Polish army was reformed by the royal military commission in 1775 and these uniforms etc were in use until the next reform of 1785.

As of the final reform 1775-76 our Polish-Lithuanian Cavalry consisted of :

Crown Horse Guard dragoon Regiment - regiment gwardii konnej koronnej aka dragoni mirowscy - one of the most famous and experienced Polish cavalry units of the XVIII century. 

Ducal Guard Dragoon Regiment - regiment gwardii konnej litewskiej

National Cavalry Brigades or line cavalry - Kawaleria Narodowa - for the Crown and Duchy(Lithuanian) armies
Lithuanian or Ducal army had one Cavalry Brigade named 1st Hussar, referring to the abolished winged hussar banners.

..

6 Dragoon line cavalry of the Crown regiments  - dragonskie regimenty koronne - 

Regiments of  Ulan-lancers or Advance Guard Reguments -  pulki ulanow koronne i litewskie

..

Royal Uhlan Regiment - Pulk Ulanow Nadworny

The original digitized publication - the plates and description - is   available from Wroclaw University Library - FBC .

Polish cavalry  officer, researcher & artist Stanislaw Geper (1889-1965) created a copy of the 1781 Raspe's publication - available here.

Wiki Commons has the entire Gepner's version available for viewing and download.

I love these Polish army uniforms created after 1775 throughout 1791 , and I think they were the most wonderful emanation of our national costume. here in the military context. 

ps
Finally there is this article by Maciej Trabski on the National Cavalry of this period, and also the same researcher wrote this book on the uhlan and lancer regiments of the Crown Army 1768-94 - 'Pulki  Przedniej Strazy Koronnej ' from Inforteditions in Poland (all in Polish).

Valete