Antonin Mercié - equestrian sculpture etc

Salvete Omnes,
 
a short entry - it is all abut the beauty and our need for beauty in our public spaces and daily lives as defined by Roger Scruton , for we live in the age of barbarians and critical theorists of post-culture hogwash, their children being ISIS & Taliban in the Middle East and Central Asia or BLM, anarchists or Antifa(and hwho knows who else?) of the present protests and riots in US and UK.
as least in France, where they have had enough of riots and protests and barbarian destruction like lately in Dijon, they declared that nobody will be removing any sculptures that are part of their history and heritage.

ad rem,

on the fabulous art of Antonin Mercie - a French sculptor, disciple of Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, famous French artists.
With Jean-Marie Mengue, Laurent Marqueste, Victor Segoffin, Auguste Seysses, and some others  he was part of the art group ''lesToulousains.''
so below please find some of his works -  there is wiki gallery with many more photos-








 
 


on the general Robert Lee's monument I will do another post

Gloria Victis

Valete

Henryk Kruszewski za arabami AD 1844

Salvete Omnes,
[in Polish]
W przedwojennym czasopiśmie Jeździec i Hodowca można znaleźć wiele perełek hipologicznych.
 Jedna z nich, z 1929roku, jest wspomnienie mości pana Wincentego Kruszewskiego z Chorobrowa pod Sokalem (dzisiaj Ukraina) o wyprawie jego ojca Henryka do Kairu w Egipcie i do Damaszku. W Egipcie, pod rządami Muhammada Ali Paszy, mieszkał jego rodzony brat Wincenty, weteran powstania 1830-31, który był wysokim oficerem w armii egipskiej  i zdaje się w dobrych stosunkach z Ibrahimem Paszą, głównodowodzącym armii egipskiej. Wyprawa miała miejsce w 1844 roku.
Pan Henryk, w czasie wyprawy pojechał także do  Damaszku w Syrii, ale chyba nie zagościł za długo wśród syryjskich hodowców koni arabskich.
Koniec końców powrócił cały i zdrowy prowadząc lądem z Triestu konie,  i z których przekazał Władysławowi Rozwadowskiemu herbu Trąby (1811-1876) z Rajtarowic  i Kochanówki 5 koni, a dla siebie zostawił jednego, bo podarunek od brata padł w czasie podroży powrotnej.
Nota bene weteran powstania listopadowego, kawaler Złotego Orderu Virtuti Miltiari (wtedy dawano w armii polskiej te najwyzsze odznaczenia wojskowe za wybitne  męstwo etc, a nie jak sanacja za bycie 'dandysem' u paska Marszałka vide casus Wieniawa-Długoszowski), i Wiosny Ludów we Lwowie hrabia Rozwadowski przyjaźnił się z najsłynniejszym hodowcą koni arabskich polowy XIX wieku Juliuszem hrabią Dzieduszyckim herbu Sas (1817-1885)  z Jarczowiec.
Zamieszczam ponizej calosc relacji z JiH-


 



 Potomkiem związku złotogniadej Kobey-Han z Obejanem byl Obejan II Srebrny, słynny reproduktor w hodowli rosyjskiej XIX wieku (sprzedany z Kochanowki do stada Sanguszkow w Sławucie, skąd odsprzedany w 1847 roku do Streleckiej stadniny).
Wyprawa ta związana jest też bardzo mocno z początkiem malarskiej twórczości nieśmiertelnego Juliusza Kossaka. Mianowicie Juliusz Kossak przebywał u hrabiego Rozwadowskiego w Rejtarowicach i sportretował przyprowadzone z Triestu konie
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The Lewis Chessmen - Gaelic-Scandinavian warriors

Salvete Omnes,

I love playing chess, and often the chess pieces are beautifully hand carved, painted and lovely to behold.
So making long story short I would like to bring to your attention the famous Romanesque period Lewis chess pieces, discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, UK in 1831, and it is thought to have been made in the XII century, when this part of Scotland was a Norse Kingdom of mixed Gaelic and Scandinavian traditions.

There are 11 pieces held at the National Museum of Scotland out of 93 pieces found,
 
the remainder is kept at the British Museum in London, UK.
Most of them were made out of walrus ivory (perhaps from Greenland), and there is the dispute where the ivory  might have originated and where they were carved - Norway or even Iceland. The dispute has been very interesting, eg this article. Wiki also has an entry on this collection and Wiki Commons plenty many of photos and drawings of the famous chess figurines.
The hoard contained plenty many of knights - this article says 15 horsemen (so one seems to be missing).
In one of Dr David Nicolle's many Osprey books - Medieval Scandinavian Armies 1100-1300AD, there is some discussion about the information contained in the chess pieces and a plate (plate E) painted by Angus McBride.


 

 



 
 
 
 
 
 


I could not resist to include the berserker as a warder

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Jean de Feschal - late medieval treatise

Salvete Omnes,
back form the break of sorts - the USA in upheaval and things are very emotional, violence and rioting out there - all this qualifies for a Chinese saying -
Ad rem, a short entry- :)
while 'talking' about the medieval and early modern hinged-bits on one of the Facebook groups I was pointed to a manuscript by a French lare Medieval or early modern hippologist chevalier Jean (Jehan) de Feschal,  - Traité d'Hippiatrique .
 ''De nombreuses inscriptions dans une écriture cursive du XVIe siècle (peut-être plusieurs mains) sont présentes dans le manuscrit.''
so, the author of Gallica information on this manuscript seems to ponder the difficulty with precisely pinpointing the year this family manuscript was produced, and indicates that the writing style belongs to the XVI century style and there are various hands present, thus might have been more writers to this folio.
It is accessible for viewing and/or download on Gallica - French National Libary.

it may be interesting to search and find out which Jehan de Freschal  it might have been - as there were at least two Jean de Feschal(separated by more than 2-4 or more  generations?) two of this family: I found
1. Jean, seigneur de Ture et de Bourgon,
2. Jean du Feschal, seigneur de Marbouë & du Gripon, capitaine du château de Caen.
and the coat of arms shown in the manuscript shows that this family branch was entitled to use the coat of arms of the Montecler one on their escutcheon-  more about this Le Mains family of de Feschal  see here. 
The manuscript has more than 160 pen and ink and watercolor images of various bits.
Among them this interesting  bit for la gineta/jineta.(view 70 on Gallica)

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Monuments to Tadeusz Kosciuszko - hero of 'two eagles'

Salvete Omnes,
this is as good time as any to bring here the images of various equestrian monuments dedicated to general Tadeusz Kosciuszko, hero of Poland (White Eagle) and United States (Bold Eagle), hence the hero of two eagles.

but I am going to start with this monument - erected at the Lafayette Park, Washington DC (and copy in Warsaw). It was sculpted by a Polish sculptor Antoni Popiel and dedicated by the US president William Howard Taft  on May 11, 1910.

 this wonderful monument has been damaged and defaced by the protesters and rioters in the BLM /George Floyd killing protest past weekend in DC.
 
There is this little subtitled video about it .  And his famous last will demanding
that his estate executor would purchase black slaves with the funds from his estate and liberate them et al. It is so ironic, isn't it? Nota bene even our friends the Russians put this article about this travesty.
Back to the monuments 
Chicago, Illinois - sculpted by a Polish artist Kazimierz Chodziński  and erected in 1904.

 

 

Detroit, Michigan - a replica -  the original was sculpted by a Polish sculptor Leonard Marconi for the royal city of Krakow and destroyed by the Germans in 1940 etc - a blog article on the monument with more pictures.
 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - (Poles in Milwaukee)
 sculpted by Gaetano Trentanove in 1904 and was a gift from the Polish National Alliance, dedicated on June 18, 1905.
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Krakow, Poland - the original sculpted( 1/4 size) by a Polish sculptor Leonard Marconi, finished after Marconi's death by Antoni Popiel and cast in 1900,  and destroyed by the Germans in 1940, a replica was made in the Saxon (the Soviet East German) city of Dresden and gifted to the city of Krakow in 1960.


 
 
Końskie, Poland  - sculpted by Wojciech Durek  in  1946.


 there is also one in Chorzele, Poland.
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