AN INTERESTING PAINTING

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by TVV

And this is exactly the problem with paintings: the shashka is a much later form, which became popular only in the 19th century. Obviously, it was well adopted towards the end of the 1800s, when the painting was created, but is not reflective of the armament of 16/17th century Zaporozhian Cossacks.

Teodor

Salaams TVV, Thank you for the note.

However, the rich legacy of ethnographic evidence left to us by the famous artists ...Orientalist, Romanticist and others cannot simply be a closed box because some of them may have employed artistic licence in creating such masterpieces...Here on canvas is the record of life as they saw it ... not through the eyes of the not yet invented camera..but in paint...The distinct difference being one of feeling, character and atmosphere... portrayed by the artist... and brilliantly comparable in the photo and similar painting earlier on this thread.

Whilst you may have a point on Shashqas regarding the timeline...Albert Seaton in his book ...The Cossacks may have a different perspective...at page 34 plate A3 Zaporozian Cossack. C 1700.

Quote" The Zaporozian Cossack wore Turkish or Tartar dress and used Turkish weapons; sometimes because he stripped the Tartar dead and wounded and raided Turkish settlements sometimes because he was in the pay of the Ottoman Sultan on whom he relied for weapons''.Unquote

Perhaps this is illustrated in the painting I posted and explains the presence of the Shashqa..(spoils of war?)and further that no spot, precise date is noted for the period being painted... and anyway who is this trooper... possibly a Circassian? Who can tell?
Perhaps you could elaborate with a description to library of the timeline of the Shashqa weapon etc ? I have some notes on the weapon from Antony Norths Islamic Arms ...which I can dig out later.

There are a few examples(also type in the other spelling Shashka at Forum Library and indeed a great interchange of ideas involving your Shashqa at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17990

..and great later examples at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=Shashqa

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.