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

[eftihis]

Thanks for the beautifull paintings! I have to strongly agree with Teodor's comments. We should not take these paintings as "photographs" of real situations... Another aspect that we have to take in account about some orientalistic paintings (not these ones!), is that they have been made in a western city by painters that sometimes have never travelled to the eastern places. The weapons are depicted accurately, because they bought real examples from bazaars, but their mixture is sometimes strange! For example caucasian pistols, together with african weapons and persian helmets!

[kronckew]

interesting middle picture. it seems very accurate. note the round tower upper left with the gun protruding from the firing slit. also note the opening to the left and down which appears to be the opening for a garderobe (latrine) with it's accurately portrayed stains

the main figure's yat does appear to be longer than normal. as does the one in the dancing painting's leaping dancer.

the upper picture with the lad being shown how to parry, to me at least, looks like the blade contact is with the flat rather than the edge or spine.

all in all, a great set of paintings, glad you posted them, Sergiu!

[SERGIU]

jovanovic noticed the interest of western Europe for the wild Balkans and created a great number of paintings with this theme.He travelled in the Balkan region taking sketches and reaching the ottoman lands and even North Africa(1880-1883).
His workshop in Vienna looked like our museum arsenal, dozens of yats and shamshirs, lots of long tancica and roga rifles ,shishanas and some superb djeferdars. Walls were full of coats of arms, pairs of pistols and garderobe included toke vests in silver.I looked for the pictures of his workshop but no avail-I saw those pics in a book about Jovanovic printed in his hometown Vrsac I will post them later

[kronckew]

more great pictures. i also wondered at the position in the 1st picture, a simple move of the seated old guy's hand bending the wrist down to slide his blade along the lad's, and there would be young fingers on the floor (and a couple old ones from his assisting mentor). the lad's blade is not poised to be able to do the same.

i note the yataghan of the posturing man in the newer series of pics again is quite a large one. either that or the man is quite small

when i was measured as a cadet for my coast guard officers sword prior to commissioning , the required length was chosen by measuring from my hand vertically to the ground such that the blade tip would not hit the ground during saluting & flourishing it at drills & parades. mine was 28 inches (71.1 cm.) which was about a half inch short of hitting the deck if i pointed it down while at attention...

the man is shown with his yat tip on the ground, blade at an angle & his wrist seems relaxed with his arm also not vertical. this geometry suggests the blade is well in excess of 28 inches, or he is considerably shorter than my 5 ft. 8.5 inches (172.7 cm) height.


p.s. - one of my classmates borrowed a sword for a parade (we had them every saturday morning prior to being let off on liberty), while flourishing it in salute, the tip did indeed hit the ground (grass parade field). there was a loud 'TINK' as the blade broke at the hilt & he was rather embarrassed to have to carry the bladeless hilt around during the pass-in-review parade before the admiral as if it it had an imaginary blade. i was very glad that was not me! taught me that parade swords made of stainless steel were not a good idea. when i bought mine, i paid extra for a real heat treated carbon steel blade. (the tv shopping channel video on youtube of the salesman breaking a stainless chinese katana also comes to mind )

i also recall another cadet officer who managed to skewer his hat off his head as he raised his sword in salute when passing the admiral taking the review. the peals of laughter from not only the watching families and friends but the marching cadets who saw it happen was never commented on. much. how i managed not to do a similar feat i do not know. maybe being the varsity epee team captain helped.

[Zifir]

Interesting pictures. The postures in the first picture raises some questions about the authenticity of the depiction. Especially the child's posture (which seems the invitation in first) reminds Western style fencing and I doubt it would be hardly useful with a yatağan.