Kingdom of Benin horse and warrior

Salvete Omnes,

I do not know much about the ancient and pre-colonial sub-Saharan African cultures, especially when comes to horse and horse warriors. 

From the Wiki Commons repository of various museums collections I selected various photos of the so called Benin bronzes, collection of artworks created in the pre-colonial Kingdom of Benin, abolished by old good British guns and bayonets at the end of the XIX century.

Hence the Benin bronzes warriors represent in  the martial art of the Edo people of present day southern Nigeria, from the XV century though XVII century etc :

I wonder what horses they used - some sort of mixes of horses from the North Africa, Sahel, like Dongola and Barb, and the more central African breeds like  Poney Mousseye and Old Nigerian Pony? 

Nota bene immortal Angus McBride painted Benin people and their Oba (kings) in his illustrations.  

Valete 

Taq-e-Bostan - Sassanians hunting stags

 Salvete Omnes,

and the last visit to Iran with Robert Ker Parker in 1820s, this time sir Robert drew the king and his court hunting stags or male deer. 

we  are faced with a visual royal narrative carved on the side of the mountain rock at Taq-e-Bostan, on the opposite side of the wild bear hunt relief. Khosrow II is hunting the deer - 

So this Taq-e-Bostan stag hunting - I think the great king is hunting a fallow deer - shows the ritual of organized, courtly hunt, subject to many artworks in the history of art.

Valete

Ker Porter - horses, soldiers and cossacks

 Salvete Omnes

Sir Robert Ker Porter, British traveler and author, left some historical images of horsemen & cavalrymen of the Napoleonic wars period.

Here I corralled some from wiki commons collections -

Valete

Taq-e-Bostan hunt - Sassanians

 Salvete Omnes,

let us canter to ancient Persia - long. long time ago - here you can go and see - I posted some images from the Taq-e-Bostan Sassanian relieves drawn by Robert Ket Porter and published in his book: "Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820.'' - incidentally this work was published in London in 1822, two hundred years ago[sic!].
In this Jstor article you can borrow this article on the costumes carved in the Taq-e-Bostan Sassanian artwork.

The subject matter is the king of kings Khosrow II's hunt for wild boar, vaaraz of the ancient Iranians, one of the most dangerous wild animals out there. The great king hunts without his horse and instead there are the elephants, of the western Asian variety, 

Hunt for wild boar with bows, while 'riding' boats and elephants - as drawn by Ker Porter

photos from wiki commons, and book page from the volume from the wold library Archive.org 

Valete

Jeanne d'Arc in equestrian sculpture

 Salvete Omnes,

 

I hope the peace will prevail in Ukraine - and in that spirit of peace let us corral some images of the famous Jeanne d'Arc, the saintly warrior La Pucelle of the French XV century.
the one Paris sculpture (of many) by Emmanuel Fremiet stands in the vanguard of this 'remuda' of sculptures - 

 ..Anna Hyatt Huntington

..Denis Foyatier

 

..Jules Roulleau

.. Armand le Veel

.. Paul Dubois' chisels

 

 

enjoy

Valete

Husaria & Pancerni - kopie, skrzydla, rumaki etc

 Salvete Omnes,

[in Polish]
o husarii i pancernych alias kozakach pogadanka z pewnymi demonstracjami o skrzydlach husarskich a moderunku i rzedzie husarskim i pancernym.

Emisja Tv zamiescila 44 minutowy film w ktorym Radoslaw Sikora i Leszek Struczynski   gawedza w stylu panow Spolica, Zagloba i Pasek czy Poczobut-Odlanicki etc  o Husarii  i o  Pancernych, broni, koniach etc  Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodow. 

Program, nagrany w plenerze wsrod lak i lasow i zawierajacy nagranie z przejazdu rekonstruktorow w czasie Swieta Wojska Polskiego, mozna objerzec na Youtube, na stronie EmisjaTv.

Milego ogladania i  

zdjecia-zrzuty z ekranu z programu Emisja TV 

Valete

Polish National Flag Day & Poles and Polonia Abroad Day

 Salvete Omnes,

a good day to celebrate if you are Polish or Polonian - two birds with one stone:
Polish National Flag Day - vivat  'White-and-Red' 
and Poles and Polonian(s) Abroad Day - vivat all peoples of Polish descent out there in the world (including Pan Twardowski living on the Moon, with his faithful rooster)

Salvete 

ps

Peace in Ukraine!