DOI Heft:
No. 2-3
DOI Artikel:Żygulski, Zdzisław; Rembrandt [Ill.]: Rembrandt's "Lisowczyk": a study of costume and weapons
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0060
14. Polish light cavalry in battle with the Swedes, S. Pufendorf, De Rebus a Carolo Gustavo
Sveciae rege gestis, Niirnberg, 1696.
golden threads on the military doublets or the fine matchlocks of the muskcts carried by those
brave citizens for defending their country.
This acute observing of objects, based upon the study of naturę, the legacy of the Renaissanee
masters of Italy and Flanders taken over by the Dutch, joined with deep art mysticism, make
up the secret of Rembrandt's creative power.
OMfjuging Held's thesis and the opinion of sonie other scholars we dare put the Lisowczyk in
the łange of realistic portraits. This may be proved by the analysis of his appearance, his costume,
ariris, riding pose and gesture, and also of the features of the horse — alf this in comparison
with the existing specimens of the epoch, documents and iconography, and our knowledge of
the Polish cavalry in the past.
If we wished to point out the most popular military formation in Poland from the XVI to the
XX century, the light cavalry would be chosen without any doubt. The decisive influence of
the Western fashion upon the Polish military custom ceased in the late Middle Ages. In close
warlike contact with Oriental peoples, Poland has formed a new type of cavalry and new mobile
tactics useful in the territories of the steppes, forests and marshes, cut by rivers and canyons.
Examples of such light cavalry were to be found in Turkey (the sipah and deli cavalry), with the
Mongols (the Tartars), Cossacks, Walachians and Serbians, distinguished by many national
features but alike in their mobility and in the system of fighting without armour, of attacking with
lances, arrows and curved sabres. The light equestrian troops of the Lithuanians and Tartars
took part in the battle of Grunwald in 1410, where the Polish-Lithuanian allied forces defeated
the strong a:.-my of the Teutonic Knights. The memory of this victory was permanent in the
50
Sveciae rege gestis, Niirnberg, 1696.
golden threads on the military doublets or the fine matchlocks of the muskcts carried by those
brave citizens for defending their country.
This acute observing of objects, based upon the study of naturę, the legacy of the Renaissanee
masters of Italy and Flanders taken over by the Dutch, joined with deep art mysticism, make
up the secret of Rembrandt's creative power.
OMfjuging Held's thesis and the opinion of sonie other scholars we dare put the Lisowczyk in
the łange of realistic portraits. This may be proved by the analysis of his appearance, his costume,
ariris, riding pose and gesture, and also of the features of the horse — alf this in comparison
with the existing specimens of the epoch, documents and iconography, and our knowledge of
the Polish cavalry in the past.
If we wished to point out the most popular military formation in Poland from the XVI to the
XX century, the light cavalry would be chosen without any doubt. The decisive influence of
the Western fashion upon the Polish military custom ceased in the late Middle Ages. In close
warlike contact with Oriental peoples, Poland has formed a new type of cavalry and new mobile
tactics useful in the territories of the steppes, forests and marshes, cut by rivers and canyons.
Examples of such light cavalry were to be found in Turkey (the sipah and deli cavalry), with the
Mongols (the Tartars), Cossacks, Walachians and Serbians, distinguished by many national
features but alike in their mobility and in the system of fighting without armour, of attacking with
lances, arrows and curved sabres. The light equestrian troops of the Lithuanians and Tartars
took part in the battle of Grunwald in 1410, where the Polish-Lithuanian allied forces defeated
the strong a:.-my of the Teutonic Knights. The memory of this victory was permanent in the
50