Thank you so much Michl, for bringing us such didactic panorama, as people currently think of the crossbow as (only) being a weapon of war, often forgetting that these devices equally had a brilliant career in the hunting scenario.
This illustration once more reminds me how short sighted i am
, for it took me all this time to figure out where the broken bow arm was. Having so said, i find the panic attitude adopted by the Gentleman in the back of the shooter rather precocious, as it all indicates he won't be hit by the undesired projectile
.
On the other hand and showing how humans level of serenity is way much lower than that of (other) animals, is worthy of note to observe the bird relaxing on the tree branch, not giving a dam to the bolt having hit the tree just below its fragile parts
.
Another thing Michl ...
Have you some theory, or even certainty, on the reason for that sort of 'mechanism' depicted in the cape of the character on the right of the illustration?
.