Nomad sketch update

hello,
A little update of a nomad sketch - digital variety in gimp and mypaint :)

Mypaint-GImp paint studio nomad

Salve,
I have been working on this nomad and his horse (potentially there will be one or more horses) using only Mypaint and GIMP Paint Studio. So far the programs and this resulting image have been very much to my liking, actually I really love Mypaint flexibility and 'painting' experience.
As per this horseman - eventually this guy may become a Saka noble, as I am moving deeper into the Eurasian steppes of the Late Bronze and Iron Age eras.. The saddle is drawn after the Pazyryk finds (Altai region of Central Asia) and Chinese III century BC terracotta army horse saddles of  Chin dynasty Emperor.
tbc

New painting programs etc

Salve,
for those who use computers to paint and either do not want or cannot afford Photoshop or Correl Painter programs I have some really great news - a very useful and absolutely free painting and drawing program that works in Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04 (I recently migrated to Linux - see ya windows) known as Mypaint - http://mypaint.intilinux.com
.... and a fine extension to GIMP that makes that program more like painter's digital media we do need - Gimp Paint Studio http://www.jesusda.com/blog/index.php?id=314
http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/gim-paint-studio-gimp-optimized-for.html
it's creator's blog - http://ramonmirandavisualart.blogspot.com/

This is the way I like the Internet aka world wide web to function - free access, open source programs, free society, exchange of ideas...

I intent to work on this image of an ancient Iranian horseman and his stallion with those two new programs/enhancements.
until the next time

Igor Baranko - comix creator

Salve,
I would like to present this blog today, blog by one of the most talented artists in the difficult genre of comix (comics) art - Igor Baranko.
I did like his Native American series - Le danse du Temps http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-12227-BD-Danse-du-temps.html
But this new two volume (one so far published) on the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Wild Lands of the southern Ukraine, and the chief protagonist Ukrainian Kozak Maksym Osa is just up my alley - so to speak. I just wish that instead of that 2008 dreadful Russian anti-Polish propaganda film titled 'Taras Bulba' they had made a movie based on Igor's work - could have been a masterpiece.
Well, you can see it here in black and white. And actually seeing the b&w drawings, before color were applied, allows us to appreciate even more Igor's work and then obviously it is a showcase of the fantastic penwork of meastro Igor -
http://baranko.blogspot.com/2008/11/1_3357.html

http://baranko.blogspot.com/2008/11/1.html
Unfortunately for the English speaking world there has not been an English version of this story, perhaps in the near future this will change, but then 99.8 % of the fabulous French-Belgian BD or la bande dessinée (comics) never make to the English language bookstores.
well, fingers crossed.
anywa - a little sketch o a Cossack or as we say Kozak of mine

Skuda - the horsearchers of Eurasia

Skuda, Skula, Skolotai, Saka (Skify, Skithian, Scythians, Skudra, Sogdian, Скифы, Саки, Scytowie, Sakowie ) or the Archers were the very first mounted 'Scourge of God' that had burst in the ancient world of Europe and Asia around beginning of the VII (7th) century BC. Mounted on swift horses ( according to archaeological finds - eg Pazyryk - and Herodotus mostly 130-150cm at withers geldings, armed with bow, arrows, klevetz (war ax or war hammer), spears and javelins, short and long swords they were pursuing another branch of the big Iranian nomad family- the Kimmerians or Cimmerians (yes,author of Conan the barbarian got his name from them) - and having finished with their cousins then they incidentally pillaged Anatolia, Syria, Palestine and Northern Egypt..
Defeated by Medes (who themselves might have been part of these archers and local population) and later Persian (their southern 'cousins') settled north of Caucasus - in the so called Caspian-Pontic steppe until replaced by the new wave of their Iranian cousins - the Sarmatians - at the end of the 1st millennium BC.
These Indo-European nomads of Iron Age created the most amazing art and most original culture, artifacts surviving in numerous kurgans (earthy mounds) throughout the Eurasian steppe, from southern Poland and Romania to China and Korea.

I drew/copied this king or using Iranian term - a shah - after a reconstruction by Russian archaeologist and artist Mikhail V. Gorelik. I used crow quill pen and ink, while colors come from colored pencils. Later I added background using GIMP etc.
This particular warrior with his entire golden martial outfit was found in the Solokha (Солоха) kurgan located on the Dniepr River, near Nikopol in Ukraine.
He has a iron scales cuirass, bashlik (felt or leather cap) and Greek helmet adopted to his Scythian use and taste, golden Scythian belt on which two most important attributes of the Scythian male costume were hung - a Scythian sword in scabbard, and a Scythian gorythos or gorytos - a leather or felt container for both a bow and arrows, where some extra arrow points and sharpening tools could also by carried.
He wears typical nomad pants - designed for riding, and soft leather boots.
He is also wearing shins protectors or greaves (there were of bronze).
He carries a bronze mace or 'buzdygan' - a weapon and a sign of his authority (this symbolic aspect buzdygan of was to survive in the Eurasian steppe military cultures until the XVIII (18th) century AD, eg 'hetman's bulawa' in Poland and Ukraine).
Riding whip or nahaika - they used no spurs - was another aspect of their horse culture.
Finally he carries two shafted weapons - a short spear and a javelin - and iron laminated shield.
This find was dated to the early 4th century BC, and was one of the richest finds ever in Ukraine... Westerners aka Europeans and Americans call the western Saka by the name - Scythians - taken after the Herodotus Histories' name usage (which a Greek term) but our nomads called themselves Skuda. Persians of the Darius the Great times (end of the 6th century BC) used term Saka, and differentiated between their northern cousins by adding different names related to their locations in the steppes and relationship to the Achaemenid Empire- Saka paradraya, Saka tigraxauda, Saka haumavarga, Saka para Sugudam.
I've got to draw a horse for him, with the full Scythian outfit.

Old Drawings continued...

Now, this rider is supposed to ride an Arabian stallion – Polish noblemen usually rode stallions (and also  geldings), Polish XVII century literature is full of references (eg poetry of Waclaw Potocki) to a 'zrebiec' (young stallion or colt between 3 years to 6-7 years of age). Although many associate Arabians with the Polish horse breeding there is very scant evidence of Arabians being present in any significant numbers in our Polish nobility stables prior to mid 1800s. There are many references to the Arabians, like in the Royal Stud at Knyszyn (1570s) or during the post-Vienna 1683 period, but so called popular literature of the period, letters, inventories, legacies, testamentary provisions always talk about the Turkish horse as being the most noble and worthy.

This drawing also belongs to the same set, mentioned in the previous post, and is not really of any particular time frame etc. I used multicolor Pigma micron pens and watercolor, and lately went over with GIMP and Photoshop etc.

The fanciful hat comes form some XVIII century painting showing Bar Confederates (Polish Civil war of 1768-72 that ended in the First Partition of Poland between Prussia, Austria and Russia).
But his riding żupan or 'zhupan' is earlier, pre-mid 1600s, you can see that according to the Polish clothing fashion the lining is of a different color than the garment itself.
I drew him as a left-handed person but according to the primary sources left-handed persons and red-headed men were not really welcomed into the cavalry companies (banners or choragwie), as supposedly capable of bringing bad luck or being untrustworthy.
Nolens volens I did my drawing with with 'muy mucho gusto', as I liked the horse and the way this rider sat in the saddle – saddle I took from many painting by Polish preeminent painter of the historic genre - Julish Kossak. The stirrups are traditional Polish, his riding boots may be booty taken form a defeated Western reiter. Since he is a lefty his bowcase is on his right hip while under his left htugh he has a 'koncerz '(tuck, estoc), another steppe and Islamic weapon retained in Poland until the early XVIII century. Another very particular weapon of choice and prestige shown here is a 'nadziak' (warhammer), that during the 1600s became part of the national noble costume and in itslef was a fearsome weapon, its origins going back to the Scythian, Persian and Saka kings of the 600-500 BC.

My main interest here is the red mane and tail of his 'Arabczyk' (Arabian horse) – well, Polish noblemen copied so much the Turkish fashions that by the late 1500s  they were dyeing their horses, usually with red, and not only the horses mane and tail but also legs and lower belly. When Polish embassies made their entries into Rome and Paris (respectively 1630s and 1640s) the onlookers and chroniclers could no hide their wonder with the richly caparisoned and very spirited horses, with dyed bodies and manes and tails...

Old Drawings ...

Many years ago when B.Clinton was US president and in Poland there was comrade Alexander Kwasniewski presiding from the Warsaw's Belvedere Place, I did a series of drawings of Polish noblemen on horseback, or rather some horses with their riders pretending to be Polish riders.
Historically correct they were not and definitely on the fantasy side, yet I had lots of fun drawing them using various Pigma micron pens and watercolors. I did clean the drawing and changed the color of the Background with GIMP and PS.

This image is supposed to show one over-armed szlachcic (nobleman) of the early XVII (17th) century.

He is wearing a Hungarian style 'magierka' (headgear), a type of hat very popular with Polish nobility between 1560-1640s (more or less), a short 'zupan' (zhupan a riding coat of ancient Iranian - Sarmatians, Scythians - nomads provenance), and riding boots where the heel was of iron and shaped like horseshoe (R. Brzezinski writes about this Polish footwear in his Osprey's book – Polish Winged Hussar). The stirrup suppose to be of a Polish type, based on the Tatar stirrups – most Polish riding gear was based in the Caspian-Pontic steppe traditions.
Under his left leg he is carrying a pallasch (a Polish Palasz) a fearsome broadsword that had its origins with the Sassanian, Turkic, and Islamic knightly traditions. I drew a Tatar looking sabre that was usually carried under the bow case. He is carrying a 'nadziak' in his right hand, a fearsome weapon indeed.
Bow case ( 'sajdak' or 'sahajdak' in Polish) is a fantasy piece, the same with saddle, although it is very loosely based on the original saddles of the time period. Horse tack is a bit fanciful but especially towards the end of the 1600s Polish horse tack became more Oriental (Tatar and Turkish). The horse tail (tug or kutas) or 'bunczk' (bunchuk) hanging from the horse's neck was adopted early in the 1500s by the Polish horsemen, and was often dyed red and adorned with colorful silk cords, gold, silver and precious jewels.
By the way a big or small mustache was a must for a Polish nobleman - His Royal Majesty King Jan III Sobieski, Prince and Marechal du France Prince Jozef Poniatowski, and Conqueror of the Soviet Russia Marshal Jozef Pilsudski are the most famous examples of that continuous fashion that lasted from the early medieval Poland until the mid 1990s. Even today it is the part of traditional Polish male appearance, although not in fashion that much with the young bucks.

CURB BIT of Byzantine provenance

Salve,
 we went to the MET today, to see the Afghanistan treasures of the Bactra-Margiana, Saka and Kushan eras (hope to address these in the future posts), and also the old medieval drawings (I will do a post on some nice drawings I found at the exhibit dating to 12th century AD Turnai, France), and passing by the Byzantine art section I took some pictures of a curb bit dated between 600 to 800 AD (Anno Domini or Christian Era), an example of early Medieval art and following both the Persian and Sogdian traditions of the Sassanid era and prior ancient Roman traditions.

The bit is beautiful, inlaid with various motifs and nicely preserved - it was found in Spain, and most likely is of the Byzantine provenance, perhaps it was traded or captured by the Visigoth or Moorish conqueror of Spain, as the times were very tumultuous.

The horse's bridle  must been attached via these 2 rectangular movable pieces attached to the bit mouthpiece's 'rings.' The reins could have been attached to the surviving rings on the mouthpice or down below at the end ot the shank, where there are two rein rings welded to the shank bar. It looks as if the purchase was not attached directly to the bridle, as if in the ancient 'psalion'/cheekpieced bit. It was  quite powerful device of control, most likely used on a mount destined for war and close combat.

One day  I shall do a drawing of this bit as could have appeared  when placed in a horse's mouth etc ...

some old drawings

as I am busy with some new and old projects I have decided to share some old images of mine - they are between fantasy and history, and between enjoyment and pure struggle to achieve a desired result, the outcome not always as happy as one would like...

599th Anniversary

This July 15 is the 599 anniversary of the victorious battle of Grunwald .
The Battle of Grunwald (or 1st Battle of Tannenberg) was fought on July 15, 1410 between unified armies of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania, under the command of His Royal Majesty Władysław II Jagiełło (with his trusted councilor bishop Mikolaj Traba having had most likely developed this war's strategy and summer campaign), against the army of the knights of the Teutonic Order and their Western (English, German, French etc) knights-guests, led by the Grand Master of the Order, Ulrich von Jungingen.
This was one of the most important battles of the late Medieval Europe, and the probably one of the largest battles to involve mounted knights fighting one another with lances, tucks, maces, warhammers, axes, swords and daggers.
Notwithstanding the knights there were plenty many of commoners that took part in this herculean struggle, including mercenary infantry from as far away as Italy (Genoa), Tatars, Hungarians, Ruthenians (today's Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians) , Czechs, and perhaps Slovaks. As usual you may read the depiction of the battle described in many websites on this glorious net, e.g. Wikipedia.
Every year there is a great reenactment of this battle in the same fields where the final mortal struggle took place six centuries ago, I think I will attend the next year 600 anniversary, it should be fun.

Well, I just want to commemorate this anniversary with my 3-penny post, also remembering one of the most fascinating knights ever to have been born in the Polish realms – Sir Zawisza Czarny z Garbowa, of the Sulima Coat of Arms ( a great specialist on the subject of the Polish nobility coats of arms but unfortunately passed away friend Mr. Suligowski would have appreciated this post a lot :) - rest in peace, Panie Suligowski).
Sir Zawisza is very special in our Polish history ans psyche, as to this day he symbolizes the virtues of honor, duty, and courage; and his spirit is still carried in the hearts of Polish scouts (harcerze) and perhaps soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces. His life story does merit at least one Hollywood film, perhaps one day...

So I decided to show two old drawings of a knight with his coat of arms -Sulima. I really never draw knights, and these two are rather old, from the time when his majesty 'read my lips' Bush Sr. was el 'presidente' of the US or slightly little after when the great cigar smoker and truth seeker Billy Clinton assumed the post of the Commander-in-Chief (still pissed at him for having bombed into the stone age the most faithful US ally in the Balkans, Serbia ). Nolens volens I cannot vouch for any arms and armor correctness, this is for a pure enjoyment.
Could not resist to include in this post the most emotionally charged (it is an allegory and not a historical reconstruction) painting of the Polish historical genre of the XIX century – Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald. This artwork survived the World War Two, its survival aggravated by the numerous Nazi Germans attempts to locate and annihilate the masterpiece, and now can be admired in the National Museum in Warsaw – if you in Warsaw, Poland, do see it, it is breathtaking.
Funny thing is that pan Jan Matejko was a Czech by origin yet being born in Cracow he became more Polish than the ethnically pure (whatever that may be) Poles, and as history has it Pan Jan has become the most important Polish painter ever, no matter what all his jealous critics say - na pohybel a los criticos.

Until the next time....

Untitled - early hussars

Hello,
July is a good month in my Polish military history - on July 4 1610 small Polish army defeated 6 times its size Muscovite-Western army at Klushino. On July 15, 1410 Polish -Lithuanian armies under king Wladyslaw Jagiello dealt crushing and overwhelming blow to the mighty Teutonic Order army, thus securing the most magnificent victory over the Teutonic Order and their Western 'guest' knights (from France, England, Reich, Italy etc) on the fields of Grunwald (Tannenberg).

Returning to hussars - today perhaps it may be desirable to talk a bit about the appearance of the winged hussars in the XVI (16th) century.
Hussars started as Serbian cavalry back in the early XV (15th) century, and became known to the West during the reign of the famous Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, who came close to become the Holy German emperor himself, and was many times a victor of the Hapsburg armies - amongst other his 'Black Army' took Vienna from them and made her his capital. Polish military commanders met with the Serbian hussars of king Corvinus during the Silesian campaigns of 1470ties. They learned and by 1500 AD we find first units of Serbian hussars in the Polish Army. By 1505 first Polish knights joined these newly appearing type of cavalry, thus our Polish hussars had been born :)
Here you can find two images of future winged hussars from the beginning of the century and more typical image of a parade-attired hussar from the second half of the same century. As you can see they started as a very light, estradiota type cavalry, and by the second half they were already moving towards more medium or even heavier cavalry, with Turkish helmet known as shiszak, curved sabre, Balkan (Serbian) shield, long lance painted and gilded ( Renaissance fashion) but yet empty inside to compensate for the tremendous length of this weapon - up to 6,3m (21 feet).
Horses, stallions or geldings, are bitted with curb-bits, ridden in rather shorter Turkish or even Eurasian steppe fashion - very similar to the Spanish la gineta - with long spurs and wider stirrups. Ornate horse harness is a must and a long Oriental carpet like shabraque or czaprak (from Turkish language) covers horse's back. The pennon seen here -of the early Serbian hussar - is small, the later hussar has quite a large pennon but soon their pennons would grow up to 2,7 m ( 9 feet) in length... The second rider has a large peacock feathers bunch on top of his shishak but our and Hungarian future hussars will be covered with eagle wings, ostrich feathers, wild animal skins and other wild beast symbolic imagery going back to the ancient Eurasian steppe traditions. Then add tuck ( koncerz, panzersrecher, estock), mace, pair of pistols, war-hammer or war-ax (in the ancient Eurasian steppe tradition going back to the Scythians-Saka) and armour, and we will see fully developed winged hussar.
tbc

Progress and corrections on the King of Kings hunting

hello,
summer is about to hit us with some warm weather in NYC, so definitely there will be less work to be done at home :)
Some little corrections (his bow mainly as I was advised on the great forum for ancient world military history enthusiasts and reenactors romanarmy.com http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=26749
I did on the famous Sassanian King Bahram Gur, and started adding some color.
Plus I started working a little on some older images of the Sassanian knights... so they will make their appearance here sooner than later ;)
pa ka

a little more finished winged hussar of 1600-10s

czolem,
this time I am showing you a little drawing that I did long time ago and recently changed a bit (computer canvas :) ). Done in the fashion of the Stockholm Roll's winged hussars, but with a pistol in the holster hung at the pommel.
At this excellent and highly recommended site you can find pictures of the entire painting known as the Stockholm Roll (it is called Stockholm because when in 1655 AD Swedes captured Poland's capital - Warsaw - they stripped all the city palaces, including the Royal Castle, of any and all valuables whether these might have been movable or just works or architecture, stone work, murals attached or paintings glued to the walls, and our Roll depicting the ceremonial entry of the king's bride into the old royal city of Cracow was one of such painting attached to the walls in the Royal Casttle.
The Swedish robbers took the painting off the walls and carried it to Sweden and there it remained until it was returned to Poland in the 1970s.
Yet many thousands of Polish cultural treasures remain in Sweden's collections, probably never to be returned - somewhat like the Elgin marbles http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/StockholmRoll.htm

Sassanian king Bahram Gur 'hunting' Hephthalites

Hello again,
I am working on many different sketches of the past (reworking them from drawing and watercolor paintings into the digital 'paintings'), but at this time would like to share with you something that is a curious (to me) combination of several persons efforts.
The story goes like this - the initial sketch was done based on my friend Kaveh's drawing - he did it for late Angus Mcbride so this famous illustrator could paint the plates for Kaveh's Osprey book on the Sassanian heavy cavalry, the particular plate depicting death of Julian Apostate battling Sassanian cavalry- then I did a sketch based on Kaveh's and then my friend Patryk - a scholar of the Ancient Iranian military, eg author of the Sassanian cavalry article for the Ancient Warfare Magazine vol.1, issue 4 - made many suggestions on how to improve and how to arrive closer to the probable historic appearance of such Sassanian rider wielding both a pistol grip Sassanian sword (the forerunner of a sabre grip) and short Sassanian bow.
Why the title - well, Patryk had suggested that this could be a depiction of Bahram Gur during hie famous campaign against the White Huns or Hephthalites - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahram_V and I liked his title so it will stand...
Many thanks to Patryk :)
to be continued

the XVI (16th) century German Cavaliers

Back in the saddle again...
I researched and painted these images for a book on the battle of Lubieszow AD 1577 (Radoslaw Sikora, Lubieszow 1577, Infort Editions 2005), between Polish Royal army and the army of the rebelious city of Gdansk (Danzig). In Polish historiography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography the name of this engagement is 'bitwa (battle) pod (of )Lubieszow'
you can check it on Wikipedia , although some idiot changed the name of the battle to the modern spelling Lubiszewo(albeit the full name of this town is Lubiszewo Tczewskie and not just Lubiszewo) of this Polish town's name
German account of this tragic battle, on google books :) http://books.google.com/books?id=a5cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54&dq=winkelbruch+1577&lr=
this one is the best in German - http://books.google.com/books?id=kZYOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA240&dq=winkelbruch+1577&lr=&as_brr=1
They represent the new type of cavalry in the Western European armies, the cavalry armed with swords, daggers, pistols and arquebus, protected by a 3/4 armor or half-armor, and ridding much, much cheaper horses then lancers.
next time I will publish some images of the Royal army cavalry units of that battle.

Cheyenne Update

I did some work on this image, especially moving his shield under his arm, note there was no handgrip or strap for the arm to slid through, and I changed the angle of the shield etc.
to be continued

Red Shield

Upon re-reading, somewhat closer than before, of works by Dorsey,'Cheyenne', Grinnell 'The Cheyenne Indians', Cowdrey, 'Arrow's Elk Society Ledger' etc., I decided to repaint my Red Shield warrior already shown here a few weeks ago.
I started with the buffalo (bison) horse mask, and this particular item completely changed the way this image feels, I think. I recently photographed the whole book on the subject, Cowdrey et al., 'Indian Horse Masks', at the American Indian Museum library downtown Manhattan. The mask is identified as of Blackfeet origin, and since both tribes, Cheyennes and Blackfeet were so closely related, I decided to give his horse such a mask.
In the near future I will repaint his shield, the medicine (war) paint on his horse, lengthen the lance etc. I already started repainting his headdress, eg the red horns that were, according to Grinnell (and Bent :) ), painted separately one by one on the event of the wearer counting coup on his enemies.
To be continued

Kluszyn or Klushino AD 1610

Little change of time and subject - Polish winged hussars against the Western and Muscovite armies during the early summer of 1610. This was the most glorious Polish Commonwealth victory ever accomplished against the Muscovy ( Tsar(emperor) ruled State of Muscovy later to be named Russia ).

In my opinion (and many others) from the position of the cavalryman and cavalry historian the most interesting part here was the apparent necessity to charge and destroy wooden fences separating the opposing armies, the destroying being done by the horses themselves, using their hooves and breasts/chests.

Pleas note that I am not going to write the story of this battle - Wikipedia has the intro to this Polish-Muscovite war that is not too bad and an entry on the battle itself but numbers are wrong etc, yet it is not my desire to write about the numbers but about the cavalrymen and their horses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Klushino

Some say there was a redoubt between the armies - actually during the battle of Klushino there was no Swedish-Muscovite redoubt - this 17th century map of the battlefield gives the best impression how this theatrum might have looked http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/POL_K%C5%82uszyn_1610.jpg
As you can see from this map the problem facing the Polish army (and the winged hussars) had to do with the wooden fence or line of wooden fences smack in the middle of the field between the two armies, and these fences actually prevented the planned surprise that had been attempted by the early morning Polish attack.

There were gaps within this line of fences (10-15meters) and according to numerous relations about the battle some of the Polish hussars had to use their horses' breasts to break these fences in order to get to the enemy behind them.
Apparently the fences on the left wing of Muscovite side - Polish right wing - were smaller and with more gaps in-between or were torn down early in the battle as the chroniclers did not write about them, although they are visible on the map and in this painting by a Polish painter Boguszewicz who painted this canvas at the order of the m,ain actor of this battle, Stanislaw Zolkiewski. http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Klushino_1610.JPG
The Swedish pike-and-musket infantry stood behind these fences (with their cavalry behind them) on the Muscovite right wing while masses (thousands) of Muscovite infantry and Muscovite cavalry stood on the Muscovite army left wing (Polish right wing).
Hussars charged these western infantry regiments via the fences, not once but at least 3 times, and then Polish haiduks (Hungarian-style Polish infantry) with 2 small falconets (it happened to have been the entire artillery of the Polish army) came and broke down the wooden fences and reduced the fighting spirit of the Westerner infantry mercenaries causing them to move rather quickly (not to say they 'run like frightened rabbits') toward their camp, although still leaving their cavalry in the field.

Therefore, Polish hetman (field marshal) Zolkiewski had to resolve this dangerous problem by clearing the Western cavalry off of the field and destroying the right wing of the Muscovite army. Consequently the Western cavalry regiments became objects of another great cavalry charge. At first, our Polish hussar banners (companies) carried out the frontal attack on the Swedish-English-Flemish reiter and arquebusier cavalry regiments, in their pursuit to destroy the remainder of the Muscovite army's right wing. The hussars' frontal charges were not successful (perhaps the great disparity of numbers and densisty of the Western cavalry formations) until the Muscovite infantry protecting their (Western cavalry) left flank had been removed (see below) and then another, final charge was made that was carried in a form of a pincer movement - at the front and at the left flank of the enemy cavalry, by some 1200-1400 hussars (1/4 of the entire Polish army on the battlefield), some with lances, the rest with tucks (pantzerstrecher, 'Turkish spear' or koncerz) and pallashes. They charged these Westerners an this time were successful. This final hussar charge against their western opponents broke the cohesive formations of the enemy and thus hussars were able to overrun the Western cavalry and destroyed its fighting ability for the remainder of the battle.

Following behind and finally passing over their heavy cavalry's tired horses the several banners of Polish lighter cavalry went after the Muscovite westerners in their pursuit for glory and loot.

On their right wing our Poles, charging repetitiously - as many as 8-9 times (but whether they charged only infantry or both the infantry and cavalry is unknown from the sources)- hussars' choragwie (companies) could not break the Muscovite infantry due to their numerical strength, density and truly amazing 'stubbornness' until several cornets of German Muscovite reiters ( Baltic German units in Muscovite service since mid 1500s) attempted to charge the already tired Poles (ridding their tired horses). These brave but rather foolish Germans, however, were beaten back and completely routed in turn, and ridding in panic, back to the safety of their camp, these German-Muscovite reiters smashed into their own Muscovite infantry regiments, causing them to be disrupted. This disruption was big enough that when our Polish lancers, charging for the 10th time and hot on the Germans' backs, closed in with the Muscovite infantry the infantrymen broke ranks and fled ( classical example of successful cavalry charge against otherwise unbreakable infantry ). Thus exploring this sudden opening our pursuing hussars rode inside the walled (kobylice protected) Russian camp and broke the very will to fight of this many times more numerous Russian army whose escaping infantrymen, eager to put plenty of space between themselves and then mercilessly pursing Polish lancers, broke down the kobylice protections in their own camp's rear and fled into the surrounding woods, in search of safety and respite.

Finally, the previously mentioned Swedish mercenary infantry retreated from the field to their camp in search of refugium and found itself to be quite alone, for their cavalry was defeated and escaped into the woods and fields desirous to save their heads; and it was at this moment when the hussar rota (company) of Andrzej Firlej ( their towarzysze and pacholiks still armed with their lances unbroken ) attacked this mercenary camp. With their charge they first broke through the kobylice barrier surrounding the Swedish camp and then in a direct, frontal charge broke through the Swedish pikemen formation - an incredible feat of military skill and prowess displayed by these horsemen and their horses.

Thus these mentioned numerous charges had more to do with the strategy of hetman Zolkiewski - and he actually wrote about this in his relation in his work titled
"The Beginning and Progress of the Muscovy War."- who wanted to keep constant pressure on the very numerous and very resilient Muscovites, and to create impression that his army was more numerical than actually presented on the battlefield. This stratagem worked very well and resulted in a stunning victory for small army against the giant Muscovite_Western behemoth.
It was the skill, the horsemanship, bravery, and superior morale of Polish lancers, endurance and patient training of their horses, and finally the tactics and strategy of the Polish commander, Stanislaw Zolkiewski that carried the day into history books :)
hope you will enjoy this little post
more to follow
many thanks to Radek :)

Polo

 Ushta Te,

   I have read this interesting article on Buskashi and Polo http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2009/04/buzkashi-and-polo/ written by dr Pita Kelekna, anthropologist and author of the forthcoming book 'The Horse in Human History.'
In the article, which is a part of series of articles on the horse theme & the forthcoming book  presented as a series of blog entries (quite clever and nicely introducing her book to the wider world), dr Pita writes about  the two other most ancient equestrian games Buzkashi and polo, since the first and foremost horse 'games' were obviously: horse racing, horse breaking, target shooting from horseback, and communal hunting.
Mounted warfare was the culminating and glorious end-result of all these games.

Today I just wanted to post some information about the ancient history of the Iranian game of Polo.

Actually, 'Gu-u-Chogan' is the Iranian name for Polo, while name 'polo' is a Tibetan name for a polo ball made from a willow root. 'Gu' means a ball and 'Chogan' means a stick, so it is a game of ball and stick played while ridding a horse  that after all is a player too :)
Polo is as Iranian (whether Persian o North-Iranian - Scythian and Sarmatian - is unknown) as a Persian carpet, or a Kantus (Median cloak that had become nomad attire for thousands of years, and in the 16th century ended up in Poland as a part of national costume known as Kontusz)) or a meydan (polo field).

Actually, the first accounts of the existence of chogan or the stick and ball game came from the time of Achaemenid Shah (king) Darius (Darayavaush) the Great (522- 486 B.C.).
And 2 centuries later his namesake & of the same dynasty, Darius III  sent Alexander of Macedon a polo mallet (chogan) and a ball (gu) with an invitation to play polo match instead of fighting battles. As we have learned in 5th grade (at least in the Polish elementary schools' history class) this particular handsome & chivalrous  invitation did not work and Alexander took his lance and galloped on ( a Thracian, Tessalian or Nissean stallion Bucephallas, as seen in this image from the Naples Museum in Italy) across the Achamenid Empire and eventually did conquer the whole Achaemenid world and beyond. As result the Greeks and Hellenic culture spread as far east as northern India and Afghanistan while eastern (Buddhism etc) influences filtered west into the Hellenic thought and culture.
I will write some day on Eummenes of Bactria, Gandhara, Indo-Sakas, Kushans and other equestrian rulers of that part of the ancient world.

Ad rem, there are other numerous mentions of the chogan/polo in the ancient Sassanian Persia, starting with the reign of Ardeshir, the first of Sassanian kings.
The slayer of Romans and builder of cities shah Shapur I (r. AD 226–241 and I will write about him soon, there are images of him ridding his stallions, he was a dashing warrior) when a young boy, he  was tested whether he was the real son of the already mentioned king Ardashir by use of his daring and courage during a game of polo.
Shah Shapur II (AD 309 to 379), another Sassanian ruler of Persia, learned to play the game of polo at the age of seven.
Finally, at the Sassanian courts the noble women played polo in the 'meydan' as well. The most famous of these aristocratic women was beautiful princes Shireen who played many a prince.
Also, the ancient Pehlevi text and later Persian chronicler al-Tabari confirm that when the future hunter-king Bahram V Gur( r.421–438)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bahramv.jpg
was growing up he received three tutors in the arts of: reading, hunting, and polo along with skills of weapons.

So going forward just a little bit we end up with the most masterful Persian epic Shahnameh that was composed in the late 10th century.  The native Persian court poet Ferdowsi wrote into the Shahnameh plenty of references about the chogan game, by then played already in the courts of imperial China, Japan, Central Asia courts, and the Arab caliphate etc but we should remember that he wrote his epic 1500 years after the first mention of the game, as I have shown above.
Along this little introduction of the ancient polo, I am adding my own 'tracing' of one of the prime examples of the Sassanian sumptuous art - in form of metal plates with etchings or etchings and relief inside the metal plate - this website has many of them http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/virtual_museum/sasanian/Artifacts/metalwork.htm I am going to do a separate post about this plate and many others, God willing.
But note this king rides a stallion, the horse's mane has been crenelated in a manner most ancient to the Iranian nomads, his tail tied and adorned with ribbons (swallow tail shape, perhaps to represent the swiftness of that bird to  give a horse more swiftness as in the American Indian belief), there is an early curb-bit along with a metal cavesson muzzle and no forehead strap or nose band (cavesson replaced it), but there is a strap under the mandible in the same fashion as seen on the Persepolis relieves(5th century BC) . The cinch seems to be of some fabric and not of leather. Discs adorn breastplate and crouper, similar to the Roman and later Hunnish horse harness styles. There may be a tamga - horse owner mark - on this stallion chest. I did not concentrate on the rider so he is rendered rather elementarily.
enjoy

Blogs

I was going to publish another of my drawings today but instead would like to mention several blogs that I have been following as of lately. Nevertheless I am going to attach one already on the net.
My biggest discovery this so is this blog http://globalhorseculture.typepad.com/global_horse_culture/ . Girasol (Sunflower) is the author of that blog and I must say it is a wonderful resource center for Latin American and American horses and horsemanship.
also there you can learn about horse publications and other horse related items.
Another blog I just discovered, well actually she discovered me first - thanks, is this blog on the Native American (Indian) beadwork and its historical reconstitution and reproduction http://angelaswedberg.blogspot.com/ . The author is this amazingly talented and devilishly or divinely :) blessed with tremendous patience and ability to reconstruct ancient beadwork Washington state artist and scholar named Angela Swedberg. I love her work while especially I look after the photos of the old American Indian horse tack and horses themselves.
Another site that I follow because I use it to learn how to paint with GIMP is http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/ where author, another Washingtonian named Xia, shows his artistic talents and teaches us, the web students, how to operate and use computer graphic programs to create images from start to finish, in Photoshop and Gimp.
I have another passion, miniature military sculpting - websites like Planetfigure.com or Polish forum figurki.org. One of the people engaged in this passionate artistic discipline and whom I admire a lot is this Atlanta based miniature sculptor and Renaissance armor and weapons scholar Agustín 'Augie' J. Rodríguez and his blog is http://augiemefecit.blogspot.com/2009_04_05_archive.html where he show his research and works in progress.
Saddly one of my favorite horse sites - horsemanpro.com is no longer working, too bad for that site's author, often harsh and strong-worded, is so knowledgeable about horses in the old, pre-1960s way ;).
Another author, dr Deb Bennett, is also big on my list of sites to visit http://www.equinestudies.org/

Finally, my most favorite American Indian site is http://plainsledgerart.org/ which has the authentic Plains warriors drawings made around the time of the Plains Indian Wars (post 1860s), and these drawings must be the primary sources on the subject how the 19th century Plains warriors and their horses, how they rode, fought. loved and looked, and not the paintings by the Euro-American artists like Remington or Russell.

Old Polish stirrups

Hello,
today another little image in the theme of the Old Polish horse tack.
This time the stirrups - this particular set comes to us from Russia where they've been preserved ever since one of the the Polish Royal Envoys left them there, with many other gifts including horses, saddles, arms, silverware and textiles, during the frequent diplomatic exchanges of the first quarter of the 17th century, between the Polish Kings and the many Tsars of that time period.

These stirrups, along with 4 other pairs indentyfied as 17th century Polish, are housed at the Kremlin's Armory - Оружейная палата Oruzhenaya Palata.

They are made out of cast iron, then they were covered in gold (gilded) and small turquoise stones were set in the three-leaves structures, decorating them as if flower cups. They are 15cm high and they were originally attached to a Polish or oriental saddle, although they cannot by connected to any particular saddle at this time. They appeared first time in the Kremlin inventory in AD 1647.

I used the Wacom tablet and GIMP to 'paint' this image.

Cheyenne

I would like to show today, on this very nice Spring day, a watercolor of a member of the Cheyenne Mahohewa Warrior Society. Cheyennes are my most favorite caballeros of the Great Plains, right behind them are their cousins the Blackfeet, then Crow, Kiowa-Comanche, Lakota etc. Mahohewas or Red Shields or Red Shield owners were a military society found amongst the two divisions of the Cheyenne tribe. They were famous for their buffalo(bison) horns headdresses and red-painted shields with the bison tail attached. They were also know as Buffalo-bull warriors - and this name speaks for itself, as buffalo bull was considered the bravest and most dangerous of all the animals on the Great Plains.
If I were to paint this one again I would have added a headmask for his horse - I have been doing some reading and nothing struck me as so important in my studies on the Plains warriors and their ways as the recent book on the horse masks by Mike Cowdrey and Ned & Jody Martin - http://www.hawkhillpress.com/indian_horse_masks.htm I should also mention Bill Holm and his book 'Sun Dogs and Eagle Down,' wonderful reconstructions of the tribal people of North America where I saw horse mask in the painting titled 'Parade' dedicated to the reconstrction of the Nez Perce man and woman on horseback.

I did this watercolor long time ago (1990s), upon reading several books: the Rev. Thomas Mails' books 'Mystic Warrior of the Plains' and 'Dog Soldiers, Bear Men, Buffalo Women' and 'Fighting Cheyennes' by Bird Grinnell. I was very impressed with Rev. Mails work, although this impression as far as his scholarship has worn off a bit, but I am still a great admirer of his art, especially the ink drawings and many of the paintings. Unfortunately don Thomas passed on in 2001 and probably can be found now with his heroes in the Everlasting Hunting Grounds.
Bird Grinnell or more properly George Bird Grinnell (1849-1938) was an early American anthropologist who started studying the Plains Indian cultures when the 'Indian wars' of the Great Plains were still raging on, the conflicts between the aboriginal peoples and the Old Uncle Sam's Army. During his distinguished career Grinnell wrote many books and I think his most important ones are the ones dedicated to the Cheyennes, although he also studied the Pawnee and Blackfeet. I was very very curious how he acquired his first-hand information from the Cheyenne informants, and for many years I was unaware that he actually had used the most important (in my opinion) man in the history of the survival and preservation of the old Cheyenne ways - George Bent, a metis (his father was William Bent, a famous Indian trader, and his mother was Owl Woman, a Cheyenne woman of a very important family) , one-time Confederate soldier and Cheyenne warrior.
It was George Bent who while living in Oklahoma, supplied all the informants, Bent did all the translations and who sent his own notes from his own examinations and interviews with old 'hostiles' and their wives, the traditionalists etc. Many of these old-timers were about to depart from this world, as the early 20th century was the hardest for the Indian tribes of the Great Plains, and Bent sensing the urgency of his mission to collect as much information as possible was often perplexed when Grinnell would not show proper respect to the old warriors and their wifes, nor did Grinnell seemed to share the same feeling that the world of traditional Cheyennes was slipping away because the traditionalists, often more than 90 years old were withering away. Bent was not a saint himself, but this is another story, already told by George E. Hyde (another assistant to Bird Grinnell) using Bent's letters and recently by Haalas and Masich (2004).
But Birdy Grinnell 'forgot' about George Bent and gave him no credit for all his field work. Nevertheless, thanks to the cooperation of these two individuals we can read and learn about the Old Cheyenne ways. Obviously there were other early scholars who studied the Cheyennes, amongst them George Dorsey and James Mooney, but first two Georges cleared the way, so to speak.

Old Polish saddle tree 2

     Hello,
this saddle or rather its tree with some metal (gilded) ornaments and its ebbing covered with leather is stored in the storage room of the Polish Amry Museum in Warsaw.


Normally such saddle tree would have been covered with an expensive fabric and fabric-covered leather skirts would have been attached to it with the leather thongs partially visible here. Note the slots for the cinch and the stirrup leathers.
This was not a winged hussar saddle as it has rather small and narrow cantle and pommel, and it  is rather narrow... armoured lancers needed more room so to speak

there are two other examples of the old Polish saddles, two different types, all of them used in the late 16th and then 17-18th centuries.

old Polish saddle tree, version1

czołem,
today I am going to show my own sketch of one of many versions of the Old Polish saddle trees. As far as I know nobody makes saddle trees like that in Poland anymore...
The basic design is Mongol or Mongol-Turkish and goes back to the saddles invented somewhere in the eastern Central Asian steppes 1500 years ago.

I am also attaching my own photo of a Polish Army Museum parade saddle, dated to the 17th century.

    Please forgive the poor quality of the photo and do note the ring curb-bit shown in the right side of my photo, the same design as the so called morisco curb bit of the colonial Spanish America.
Ciao

Serbian Hussars

Salve,
the very beginning of Polish Hussaria   belongs entirely to the  Balkan Serbian warriors already known as hussars (for almost a hundred years prior to their coming to Poland).
They came to the Polish  Kingdom, at the end of the 15th century,   in search of military employment and probably somewhat of a easier life,  and our Polish Kingdom did  offer these noble refugees from the Turkish-Hungarian-Habsburg wars of the 15th century plenty of  religious freedom  and economic  prosperity...
They carried 3 meters long, light lances with small pennons, Balkan shields, oriental and Hungarian sabres, and presumably war axes and 'klevets' or war hammers. They used light Balkan, Turkish and Hungarian saddles,  peculiar round stirrups, curb bits and long 'czaprak'  (large and often richly decorated  textile horse blanket or 'shabraque') to cover their horse back, sides, and  hindquarters.
 Polish-Serbian hussars can be seen in action  circa AD 1514  in this  very large 1530s painting from the Polish National Museum in Warsaw, you can take at look at the painting here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Orsha_(1514-09-08).jpg 
The painting depicts the first Polish-Lithuanian victory over a huge Muscovite army near Orsha on the Dniepr River (now Bielarus), one of three battles that took place at Orsha  in the first half of the 16th century.
During the next 50-70 years hussars acquired  full armor, larger horses, longer and heavier lances, shishak (Turkish style) helmets,  leopard, bear, wolf and lion pelts to cover themselves and their horses, and plenty of eagle, ostrich, falcon etc  feathers.

another Old Polish horse

This time I found this image of Old Polish horse on the cover of a book of gouaches painted either by or for baron d'Eisenberg, master rider, ecuyer and one of the foremost specialist in the art of the manege or 'dresser de cheval' of the 18th centuries, his opus magnum was 'l’Art de monter à cheval'(1759).
 He wrote and illustrated his own books. eg look at these prints
                                                      *
The book shown here can be bought from Amazon.com. and quite cheaply. It contains 55 color paintings of horses, many types of horses and breeds that could be found in Europe circa AD 1759.
The interesting thing here is that our good baron showed and proved though his work that any type or breed of horses can be 'dressed/schooled' to perform high school airs, it was the ecuyer who made this happen and not the particular breed of horse. This is quite contrary to Cavendish or de la Gueriniere writings.

   Anyway, this horse is performing a croupade. His name is 'Botte' and was bred in the estates of Prince Lubomirski who in turn gave him as a gift to the Prince de Craon at Luneville, where baron d'Eisenberg schooled this horse. Pleas note his small head and pinto coloring. He is ridden in a caveson and curb bit, double reins etc.

czolem,
Some new, GIMP-manipulated, ink drawings of the Winged Polish-Lithuanian Hussars. They are not finished, not yet...

Equus polonicus - Ridinger

Salvete,

Finally I found a good copy of Ridinger's Equus polonicus or our good Old Polish Horse, etching made for the album of some 30-plus etching of the mid-18th century horses of Europe and Middle east (Persian, Turkish, Arabian, Barb etc., horses) .
Johann Elias Ridinger (b.Ulm 1698 – d. Augsburg 1767) was a German artist and printmaker who devoted his life to the art of printmaking and specialised in equine, wildlife and hunting themes. He was often employed by His Majesty King f Poland and Prince of Saxony Augustus III, and we even have a print of him showing our king, not the best one we had, riding one of his horses.
 Interestingly,  Saxony was importing Polish horses all the way up to the end of the 18th century for the Saxon 'chevau legers' of the royal guard, where general Jan Henryk Dabrowski's father was a cavalry officer. See the print attached here too.
see this website dedicated to his art and the art of printmaking in general http://www.luederhniemeyer.com/index.php

Please note that our horse is a pinto, with a really small head and very nice muscular body and dry, strong legs. While Herr Ridinger might have exaggerated the small size of his head, nevertheless this lightly roman-nosed head does conform to the 16-18th (or even early 19th century) century preferences our ancestors had for their horses' heads, i.e., small, dry and noble

tbc

Zygmunt III king of Poland and grand prince of Lithuania

I found this image of our king Sigismunt III Vasa on wikipedia. We know now, based on the primary sources of his reign, that he was the first to receive the newly bred Spanish Andalusian Horses from the studs in Cordoba and Austrian at Lippica, his wife's family, the Austrian Habsburs, were the givers/ senders of these horses. We had used to call them Dzianet, after Jennet Genette, prior to the Corboban breed being established (AD 1576-9), so naturally they kept calling them 'dzianet's from Spanish 'el jenet', genete etc, as 'rumak' (from Turko-Persian argamak) was still reserved for the Oriental horses. Perhaps in this print Zygumunt III rides a Cordoban Spanish stallion, celebrating his armies' victory over the Turks at Chocim (Khotin) A.D. 1621.

Note that Richard Brzezinski et late Angus McBride (painter) reconstructed a winged hussar wielding a hussar lance (plate depicting Vienna AD 1683) in the same manner as Zygmunt here, in their Osprey book "Polish Armies 1569-1696" vol1. Perhaps the print was their inspiration, and obviously wrong, as the hussar lance or kopia was many between 3,5m to over 6meters long. Impossible to hold this lance in this manner. My friend Radek Sikora writes about the hussar lance in his articles accessible at http://www.hussar.com.pl/162/husaria-cz-3-radoslaw-sikora accidentally in this particular article there is my own drawing showing a long lance wielding hussar attacking a pikeman, circa AD 1626-33.

new caballeros on the ...tablet

hello,
I decided to post some new-old sketches that I have been slowly redoing  using GIMP. They are unfinished and rather raw, and subject to change :)

Jannisaries

This post re: one illustration of a janissary painted by a new Polish miltiary ilustrator Michalik for a new book by Polish military history publisher Inforteditions.
Ottoman Turkish  infantry known as Janissaries were one of the most formidable opponents  that our Polish-Lithuanian Cavalry had to face. This particular  new book deals with little known engagement at Orynin on Sept 28 1618, between the Commonwealth armies lead by Crown grand hetman Jan Zolkieweski and his Ottoman Turkish-Tatar foes, including some janissary ortas (batalions). It was somewhat a prelude to the Zolkiewski's disastrous Cecora (Tutora)  campaign.  The book is small but illustrated and has some nice maps done in color by the same artist.
The remainder of my post  is in Polish but all the links are in English or German :)
Mam ochote podzielic sie paroma uwagami na temat tego janczara imci Michalika  - Janczar jak to janczar [url=http://www.wanax.pl/galerie/o/orynin-28-ix-1618_1062.jpg]http://www.wanax.pl/galerie/o/orynin-28-ix-1618_1062.jpg[/url] w tle ma obrobione zdjecie chyba Chocimia? co do jego wygladu, i tu zgodze sie z Krzsztofem M. ze ilustracja ma klimat.
Ale... jesli chodzi o zestawienie strojow oraz uzbrojenia to nie jest to obrazek AD 1618 jeniceri. Nie wiem skad przyszly Orta-y (roty) janczarow pod Orynin, a jak wiemy roty Yeniceri Ocak (korpus janczarow) byly uzbrajane i munudrowane przez skarbiec sultanski, jako czesc armi sultanskiej czyli Kapikulu Askerleri.
 Janczar na ilustracji ma zachodni i na dodatek bardzo krotki muszkiet, bo 'normalna' dlugosc muszkietow lontowych to 125-160cm, a np w muzeum w Gratz egzemplarz ze Styru AG 1620 i ma 130cm dlugosci; w kazdym razie wyglada na zachodnioeuropejski (kolba wyglada na niderlandzka, i zamek sam takze, choc wlasnie to Anglicy prowadzili ozywiony handel bronia z Porta) muszkiet lontowy. Faktem jest ze Porta kupowala duze ilosci broni (od Anglikow cyz Holendrow czy pewnie Francuzow), w tym broni bialej, na Zachodzie, a wojna z Austria skonczona ponad 10 lat wczesniejpozwalal byc moze na wiekszy handel w tej materii, wiec uwzam ze ten muszkiet a) jest za krotki b)nie jest na miejscu jako bron podstawowa tego piechura, gdyz janczarzy otrzymywali muskziety wlasnej produkcji tureckiej, ktore byly o lepszej jakosc stali w lufach nizli te europejskie,. MOge zrozumiec muskziet zachodni gdyby Orta tego pana przyszla z Wegier gdzie Orty janczarskie byly czesto uzbrojone w zdobyczna/zakupiona bron zachodnioeuropejska, a wtedy uzbrojeniene europejskie byloby widoczne takze w jego broni bialej a on nosi bardzo lekki, zwinny i drogi typ tej broni, przynalezny raczej oddzialom kawalerii, gwardii przybocznej czy oficerom, w kazdym razie wydaje sie ze jest to turecko-perska szable typu simsir/samszir lub kilic . Nieco o szablach tureckich ze zdjeciami etc [url=http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=414]http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=414[/url]

 Wiadomo ze oddzialy skupione na Wegrzech uzywaly zmodyfikowanych importowanych z Zachodu mieczy zwanych mec(mecz), a jesli z rekojescia szabli to pala lub gabara a wiekszosc zolnierzy ort janczarskich uzywalo szerokie kilic'e lub jatagany plus inne bronie obuchowe czy toporki.
Mundur - zaczne od ziemi. Buty janczarzy nosili czerwone, tylko oficerowie oraz oddzialy elitarne nosili zolte buty, czy byly one w typie pantofli czy tez wyzsze do kostki czy tez zakrywajace lydki to juz kwestia wyboru i warunkow naturalnych toczacej sie kampanii ( link do kismety pokazuje ich buty); nastepnej czesci ubioru niewidac a sa to salvar (szarawarow) :)

 TO co przykrywa wiekszosc czesc tego zolnierza to jest.. wlasnie co to jest - janczary nosili kapanice jako rodzaj plaszcza, a pod tym nosili dolama lub kaftan, obydwa mialy dlugie rekawy i byly duzsze lub krotsze, zaleznie od mody. Dolama i kaftan mogly byc noszone same, bez kapanice. Wazna czesci munduru byl pas, za ktory zakladali poly dolamy czy kafatana w czasie walki lub marszow. W kazdym radzie kolor tego co przykrywa naszego janczara jest zadziwiajacy, i pozostawiem waszmoscia wolna droge do orkeslenia co to mzoe byc za kolro munudru tego janczara..

W koncu czapka janczarska czyli bork np z okresu wojen konca XVII wieku [url=http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/sam/sam_rus/D204_de.php]http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/sam/sam_rus/D204_de.php[/url] a tu widac pozny okaz [url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surname_22b.jpg]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surname_22b.jpg[/url] a tu wczesniejszy co prawda jest to orta marynarki wojennej [url=http://ron.heavengames.com/cpix/gameinfo/nations/turks/janissaries.jpg]http://ron.heavengames.com/cpix/gameinfo/n...janissaries.jpg[/url] ale czapki widac dobrze
 Temu janczarowi brak prochownicy (priming flask), rogu na proch (powder horn) a wydaje sie ze ma torbe na kule, sztabki olowiu i formy do odlewania kul - z tym ze wydaje mi sie ze nosi te torbe ale czy ja nosi po turecku :) to tego nie wiem tu mamy przyklad [url=http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/media/ka5_katAufmacher/sam-rus_00_ka5_320x465.jpg]http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/media/ka5_katAu...ka5_320x465.jpg[/url] a do tego jakis dziwny ten pasek przytrzymuajcy te torbe, bardziej wyglada na muszkieterski pas etc

Wydaje mi sie ze nasz janczar spod Orynina jest narysowany ze zdjecia jakiegos nowoczesnego odtworcy, czy janczarow czy innych muszkieterow 9np kozakow, polskich lanowskich etc) z pewnymi modyfikacjami etc...
Konczac to rzekne ze uwagi te nie kieruje do ilustratora, tylko do naszego forum , ku lepszemu poznaniu tematu; a pretensji nie mam do ilustratora, bowiem rysowal i malowal tak jak mu autor ksiazki poradzil, ktory powinien byc znawca tematu i doradca ostatecznym, ot ico.

dla porownania obiekty z epoki [url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Vienna.SultanMurads_with_janissaries.jpg]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bat...janissaries.jpg[/url]
tu pare obrazkow, z tego pierwszy obrazek [url=http://www.zgapa.pl/zgapedia/Janczarzy.html]http://www.zgapa.pl/zgapedia/Janczarzy.html[/url] , to rycina z XVI wieku

[url=http://images.art.com/images/products/regular/11723000/11723080.jpg]http://images.art.com/images/products/regu...00/11723080.jpg[/url]
 atu strona o janczarskich mundurach, tkaninach etc czyli wielak kismeta [url=http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse]http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse[/url]
/OttomanPatterns.htm
[url=http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/JanissaryHeadgear.htm]http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/JanissaryHeadgear.htm[/url]

a tu mamy przepiekny przyklad gwardzisty janczarskiego z ksiazki zwanej Raalamb Costume Book (1657-8) ktora z jakis przyczyn juz nie jest na necie [url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ralamb_Janissary_1.jpg]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ral...Janissary_1.jpg[/url]

a tu janczar z ryciny z okolo 1583 [url=http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/media/ka5_katAufmacher/sam-rus_00_ka5_320x465.jpg]http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/media/ka5_katAu...ka5_320x465.jpg[/url]