yataghan fencing

[TVV]

I would be careful with realist paintings, as their authors worked in an era of rising nationalism and their works were aimed at portraying a rather romantic and epic picture of a bygone era. The level of accuracy in the description of the arms is not surprising, as the arms survived in museum collections and were readily available to the artists. As far as the usage of those arms, well, I am not sure how much of that Jovanovic was able to see first hand in his time.
Now, I am sure that there were certain techniques for fighting with the yataghan that were studied and practiced by men in the Balkans. From all the memoirs of haiduts who used it, I have been able to derive very little, and it mostly comes down to some very energetic swinging and chopping away at close quarters, when it has become a weapon of last resort. Given the emphasis on ambushing tactics in the mountainous and heavily wooded Balkan terrain, my impression is that sharpshooting with firearms was given a lot more practice than fencing, with skirmishers preferring to snipe at each other from long distance.
Regards,
Teodor