AN INTERESTING PAINTING

[Jim McDougall]

This is an amazing and most colorful painting Stu!!! and this work by Repin is probably one of the most iconic illustrations of this Cossack host ever !!

I still have a figurine of the main figure in red, the jovial character with the white hat, beautifully crafted by Martin Merks, a member here.

There have been great discussions on the weapons used by the Zaporozhians, and what is unusual is that they typically did not have the familiar shashkas of other Cossack hosts. Actually they used arms of Tatar, Lithuanian and other groups and often used shamshirs as well as East European type sabres.

Perhaps we might put together a collective group of weapons used by these Cossacks?

[machinist]

It is a great painting and it is one of the pictures I have in rotation for my wallpaper on my computer. I enjoy searching out all of the different weapons and looking at all of the fierce faces. Some of those guys are scary even while laughing.

[ariel]

The issue of Cossack weapons has been a topic of many a heated discussion on Russian Forums ( Fora?)

There is a great book by Denis Toichkin, an Ukrainian weapon historian, describing virtually all weapons belonging to Zaporozhian Cossacks that were either preserved in the muzeums or dug out at the sites of major Cossack-Polish battles. He concludes that there was no such thing as the indigenous Cossack saber: all are Turkish, Polish, Tatar or Persian, ie acquired one way or another from enemies and neighbors. The few made in the Ukraine are just faithful but crude copies of the above.

Not a surprise: Cossacks shunned all and any manufacturing jobs and had no material base of weapons manufacture. Any Cossack acquiring a productive profession instead of fighting was ( literally!) beaten and ostracized. They were a purely fighting host: akin to Caribbean pirates. Toichkin's analysis of the occupations of local inhabitants and the existence of smithies, import of steel etc. confirms it 100%.

Looking for a shashka among the Zaporozhian Cossacks is just as fruitful as searching for nimchas in Japan. In contrast, Kuban, Terek and Black Sea Cossack Hosts used shashkas left and right. Not a miracle: they lived among the true Caucasians :-)


BTW, re. Forum/Fora:
A Roman goes into a bar and asks for martinus.
"You mean martini?",- the barman corrects him. " No. Had I wanted a double martinus, I would have asked for martini".

[kahnjar1]

Further to my first post above, I attach here, for the benefit of those who do not like to open links, another version of The Cossacks by the same artist, which to my mind is not anywhere near as interesting in terms of weapons etc. Also a portrait of the artist Repin himself.
Stu

[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.

[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!!!!