Part 2 :
Moving onto
Sucevita Monastery Fresco - Romania
Unfortunately this one is a bit smaller. Note the Turks, that are apparently slaughtering some folks. Two of them are seemingly from the Jannisary corps , as their pointy headwear indicates. The man in the middle seems to use a straight sword in a two handed way (?) , whereas the Jannisary on the right uses what seems to be a sabre-proper.
Probably a "Warrior Saint". His sword bears a great resemblance to another one drawn in a fresco from Pec, Serbia. (The one i posted in the "Volga Bulgarians" thread)
Next comes
St. Dimitrie Church Frescoes, Suceava, Romania
I am guessing probably another one of those "warrior-saints" ; his sword however is very interesting ; note the slightly curved crossguard and slender blade, that shows a striking resemblance to some of the more wester late medieval/early renaissance cut and thrust swords
No swords shown , but the picture is rich on polearms and armour. Note the man-at-arms at the front that carries a composite or even a longbow?(!)
The last (but not least) duo of pictures comes from
Probota Monastery Frescoes, Romania
A scene of beheading. Note the gilded hilt and the following cleaning of the sword blade.
A beautiful fresco. This one containts both the "Romanesque" armour , circular ( similar to kalkan-turkish) shield, spears but most importantly swords. The military figure in the center seems to carry ,judging from the somewhat canted hilt a sabre (or if you take into consideration the lenght of the hilt it could even be a long/hand n a half sword?). The last thing to note is the angel under Christ's left arm , that is definately holding a sabre (unfortunately the picture is a bit small , but one can see the gilded crossguard and a dark hilt/pommel)
Enjoy folks , there is much more at
http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/Icons_...es/index.shtml , its a pity though that no dates are given.
All the best ,
Samuel