Ca. 1510: Landsknechts fleeing Death

[Matchlock]

I found these on flickr.com.

This guy ( roelipilami seems not to be his real name) is doing a great job traveling a lot in museums where he takes detailed images of paintings, sculpture and other stuff depicting early weapons.

Wherever you are, roelipilami, thank you so much for sharing this great stuff! Carry on, man! You seem to have acquired highly specialized knowlegde in Gothic and Renaissance armor, hafted and edged wepaons. Maybe you could photograph representations of earliest firearms as well; they are rare enough to be actually found...

And for the rest of you, I recommend flickr.com not only for roelipilami's brilliant potostream but for other people doing very well on this page, too!

The first detail, from a painting by a Nuremberg master of ca. 1510, who was obviously inspired by Dürer, is called "Landsknechte (mercenaries) fleeing Death" and is preserved in the Staatliche Gemäldegalerie Berlin.

The next four details, of ca. 1230-40 and referred to by roelipilami on the screen shot, are taken from a Westfalian Crucifixion scene, while the last four are from a ca. 1530 Brabant "Holy Cross" altar.

Enjoy!

Michael

[celtan]

Thanks for the pointers Michael. Will check his pics.
Best
M

[Jim McDougall]

Sometimes I enjoy going back over older threads, and often see great posts that are somehow sadly neglected. These I regard as missed opportunities, as they should inspire us to check into things further and enjoy learning more on the subject at hand.

In the case of this thread, I looked more into the history of the Landsknechts, and am almost embarassed at how little I apparantly knew about them. I did not know for example, that the Landsknechts were actually German and sometimes other nationalities, versions of Swiss mercenaries.

All this time I thought that the Landsknechts WERE the Swiss mercenaries!
Apparantly these German mercenary troops were modelled on the Swiss mercenaries, and at times even fought withy them on opposing side!

While the Landsknechts were famed as pikemen, they also used halberds as well as thier arming swords known as 'katzbalgers' (Ger. katz=cat, balg=skin, or also balgen=brawling, loosely cat-gutter). Always looking for symbolism, this terminology reminded me of the pommel on the distinct sword used by Dalmatian mercenaries for the Doge of Venice, the 'schiavona', which has as a trademark, the 'cats head' pommel.
It would seem that the cat fighting analogy may have been somewhat loosely adopted as the 'totem' of the mercenary soldier, in my interpretation at least.

Looking further into characteristics of these well known mercenary soldiers, one cannot avoid considering their distinct clothing. It would seem that these elaborate, multicolored and almost gaudy costumes were in effect yet another means of psychological warfare. It was said that the often outlandish attire chosen and typically personalized by these men were officially approved by Maximilian I, as they were entitled to this priviledge with their almost Spartan lives and often too short lives.

The slash and puff method of pulling through under fabric in slashed openings possibly suggested garments damaged in combat. It is known these men sometimes took items of clothing etc. as spoils of war, and this would have proclaimed their seasoned veteran status. The bright, clashing and parti colored garments, deliberately asymmetrical, torn, festooned and so on would present a disturbing countenance as an opposing enemy heavily armed.

I just though I would share what I was able to find in learning from these interesting illustrations posted, and nicely commented on by Michael. I very much appreciate these fascinating and clearly inspirational posts he has shared here, and am always compelled to 'pick up the gauntlet' to learn from them.

Thank you Michael!

All best regards,
Jim

[kisak]

Adding to the Landsknecht stuff, a quite nice modern attempt at a Landsknecht kit can be seen here: http://histvarld.historiska.se/histv...ekt/index.html

Text in Swedish, but the pictures should be in International. The links labelled "Mönster till..." at the bottom of many of the pages goes to patterns for the clothes.

[Ed]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

I found these on flickr.com.

This guy ( roelipilami seems not to be his real name) is doing a great job traveling a lot in museums where he takes detailed images of paintings, sculpture and other stuff depicting early weapons.


Michael

I dropped him a note to see if he has been to Rheims. Those Clovis tapestries you know.

[Ed]

These are a few halbards of the period from my collection.

Generally the hafts on these things are replaced or, at the very least, cut down.

As far as dating goes, on observation, it appears to me that a pretty rough and ready guide consists of taking the ratio of blade length to the narrowest point of the neck behind it. The more degenerate that these things become, the greater the number (more narrow neck).

The oldest example here might be a bit before 1500, say 1490.

Also, it appears that as halberds become more decorative rather than functional, the blade becomes more parallel to the haft. If you think about it that is really a suboptimal angle if you are trying to brain one of those pesky Swiss.

[Ed]

As a point of comparison look at these.

Left to right

American ca 1776
Austrian ca 1690
Italian ca 1700

The spears are still sharp though, as Bunky found to his chagrin.

[Matchlock]

Congratulations, Ed,

You sure own very beautiful and early halberds!

According to the illustrations in the 500-year-old Maximilianische Zeugbücher, you gave the exactly correct date for the second one from right: ca. 1500.
The staff may have originally been equipped with an iron pointed shoe - is it present? According to Maximilian's inventories, not all 500-year-old halberds seem to have had it, though.

Though not being able to cope with your jewels by far I enclose some pics of my four halberds and a so called frog's mouth spear.

The images of three show, from top:

- a rare 'frog's mouth' spear, Styrian, ca. 1550, from the Landeszeughaus Graz, retaining its rare original octagonal ash wood staff (all of the remaining frog's mouth spears in Graz have later round staffs!). The staff bears the crisp inventory stamp of the Metropolitan Museum New York, where it must have been about some 100 years ago before finally getting deaccessioned of

- a rare "Maximilian type" halberd retaining its now bent original oak wood staff with iron pointed shoe, the staff drilled thru in places to fit in an earlier presentation. For comparison, cf. the attached illustration taken from one of the Maximilianische Zeugbücher, Innsbruck/The Tyrol, ca. 1505-07

- a fine Austrian halberd retaining its original oak wood staff and raw silk finery, ca. 1580; the staff incised with various magical signs, apparently added by different users

In the first of two 500-year-old 'Maximilian' watercolors note the Landsknecht (mercenary) gone crazy, evidently just having literally cut up a fellow!!! - now how cute is that?!

The image of two shows:

- a Bavarian early Renaisssance halberd retaining its original staff, ca. 1530

- a fine Bavarian Halberd, on its original oak wood staff, ca. 1540-50


Let's start a thread on halberds!

Michael

Originally Posted by Ed

These are a few halbards of the period from my collection.

Generally the hafts on these things are replaced or, at the very least, cut down.

As far as dating goes, on observation, it appears to me that a pretty rough and ready guide consists of taking the ratio of blade length to the narrowest point of the neck behind it. The more degenerate that these things become, the greater the number (more narrow neck).

The oldest example here might be a bit before 1500, say 1490.

Also, it appears that as halberds become more decorative rather than functional, the blade becomes more parallel to the haft. If you think about it that is really a suboptimal angle if you are trying to brain one of those pesky Swiss.

[Matchlock]

In the bottom 'Maximilian' watercolor please note that

- the iron of the halberd is blued, not bright

- some of the gun stocks are painted green - just like in the original haquebut piece that I posted here earlier!