AN INTERESTING PAINTING

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

This is a hugely interesting subject of which I know absolutely nothing. It would be good to expand into the detail ...This artwork is fascinating and a great way to portray the weapons...I note it even became a postcard! Whilst I press into search on library and hit the web~
Here's another.

Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[spiral]

Somewhere on this forum from many years ago with many great paintings mostly by a French artist.

One was an old Arab warrior at rest with his hookah, with yataghan & shamshir featured.

Sadly I cant recall the artist name or the thread. {Different computer files lost...}

Spiral

[Norman McCormick]

Hi,
Here are some more, prints, paintings etc.
Regards,
Norman.

[Norman McCormick]

And again.

[Norman McCormick]

Again.


P.S. A search for Orientalist Paintings will bring up images from this artistic movement many with images of weapons.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by spiral

Somewhere on this forum from many years ago with many great paintings mostly by a French artist.

One was an old Arab warrior at rest with his hookah, with yataghan & shamshir featured.

Sadly I cant recall the artist name or the thread. {Different computer files lost...}

Spiral

I wonder if it might be in Elgood's book on Islamic firearms, there is some great art in there.
It seems often overlooked how important art can be in the study of weapons, and I think the late Nick Norman proved that beautifully in The Rapier and the Smallsword" . Here he used period portraiture to illustrate and assess dates and periods for many hilt forms and pommels .

While it seems that portraits typically offer reasonably reliable images as subjects usually wore their own arms, as with most art a degree of caution must be observed. Artistic license is virtually inherent and in many cases of dramatic illustration there can be certain latitude expected, case in point of course Rembrandt's Biblical works using Indonesian keris etc.
In much the same way many classical paintings in Italy with Biblical subjects used contemporary arms and armour.

By the same token, Ariel makes very good points about the various hosts of Cossacks, and along with not being an 'ethnic' group, but assemblages of various ethnicities, they indeed used a wide variety of personally favored arms.

Excellent image on that postcard Ibrahiim!!! I often forget that Cossacks were often in boats and ships in addition to their prowess of course on horseback . I think some of the most impressive exhibitions of their riding skills are with the 'djigtovka'(?) as I believe some scenes in the classic movie epic "Taras Bulba" showed. Naturally, all manner of exception can be taken with the better part of the movie, but I think the riding was authentic.

[Jim McDougall]

We crossed posts Norman, WOW!! there are some fantastic illustrations!!!!

[Norman McCormick]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

We crossed posts Norman, WOW!! there are some fantastic illustrations!!!!

Hi Jim,
Thanks, I find these illustrations/paintings helpful in understanding how weapons were worn and seeing the accessories carried in support e.g. powder horns etc. As always these types of images can be subject to artistic license but if you look at a lot of different ones you can usually get a good general idea of what is in all probability correct.
My Regards,
Norman.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Norman McCormick

Hi Jim,
Thanks, I find these illustrations/paintings helpful in understanding how weapons were worn and seeing the accessories carried in support e.g. powder horns etc. As always these types of images can be subject to artistic license but if you look at a lot of different ones you can usually get a good general idea of what is in all probability correct.
My Regards,
Norman.

Absolutely excellent point Norman!!! As with most research, several concurrences usually will strengthen the proof factor. Most importantly as you well note, these works offer fantastic context to the weapons we collect and study, as well as perspective into those who used them.

All the best,
Jim

[spiral]

Heres some of the paintings I was thinking of...

linky

The "living" quality of the art is amazing!


Also One of my favourites by Gerome...{bad photo sadley...}

No one still living can paint like these men did .... sadley the Same as many other lost craft skills we admire on this forum including including jewellery & steel forging metal working skills.. {IMHO] { I realise not everyone agrees...}

Spiral

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The Battle of Berestechko (Polish: Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem; Ukrainian: Берестецька битва, Битва під Берестечком) was fought "after a two-year truce", between the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Tatar allies, and a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army under King John II Casimir.

Fought over three days from 28 to 30 June 1651, the battle took place in the Polish province of Volhynia, on the hilly plain south of the Styr River. The Polish camp was on the river opposite Berestechko and faced south, towards the Cossack army about two km away, whose right flank was against the Pliashivka (Pliashova) River and the Tartar army on their left flank. It was, very probably, the world's largest land battle of the 17th century.

This description of the battle comes from Wikepedia and the actual report contains superb order of battle diagrams I show below thus, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berestechko though I should go on to unroll the entire battle here ~

The number of Polish troops is uncertain. One of the senior Polish commanders on the day, Duke Bogusław Radziwiłł, wrote that ~

The Polish army had had 80,000 soldiers, which included "40,000 regulars and 40,000 nobles of the levy en masse, accompanied by roughly the same number of various servants, footmen, and such." Modern historians Zbigniew Wójcik, Józef Gierowski, and Władysław Czapliński have reduced this figure to 60,000-63,000 soldiers.

The Cossack army totaled 80,000 men, including 28,000-33,000 Tatars and an uncertain number of Ukrainian peasants or as much as 100,000 men, most of them low-grade foot troops, plus 40,000 to 50,000 allied Crimean Tatar cavalry and a few thousand Turks and Vlachs, for a total of 200,000.

Both sides had about 40,000 cavalry. Fighting was close, with the core of excellent Cossack infantry making up for the weakness of their cavalry; much of the decisive fighting was by the infantry and dismounted dragoons of each side.

To be continued...