DOI issue:
No. 2-3
DOI article:Żygulski, Zdzisław; Rembrandt; Rembrandt [Ill.]: Rembrandt's "Lisowczyk": a study of costume and weapons
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0076
after the manner practised in Turkey by the deli riders (crack troops)35; the fashion has surely
its morc distant genealogy in tlie Eastern cultures. The bridle is of simple workmanship made
of red leather adorned with brass studs. The horse is ridden on the bit. The buntehuk — a horse
taił mounted in an onion shaped holder with decorative net and tassels hangs on the right side
of the horse's neck. Such decoration of harness may also be traced back to Assyrian times and
was later used by the Persians. The Turks generally made it ofyak-hair, but sometimes women's
hair was used. Under Turkish (and Tartar) influence, the custom of black buntchuks as military
distinction of hetmans and of white buntchuks as a harness ornament was largely observed
in Poland; they were made simply of horse hair. There is no evidence that they were more popular
in Hungary than in Poland. Generally speaking, military forces and the development of the
military customs (strongly influenced by the Turks) were much more advanced in the indepen-
dent and powerful State of Poland than in the divided and partly occupied Hungary (fig. 32 — 33).
Our analysis is over. The observations and confrontations made above lead to conclusions
throwing a new Iight on the picture under discussion:
1) Rembrandt painted this picture from naturę. The hypothesis that he based it on the second-
-hand materiał of drawings or engravings of any other artist must be rejected.
2) Rembrandt did not arrangc an artificial model for this picture. It would be hard to assume
that he possessed in his eollection such a complete and exquisite set of Polish costume, arms
and horse harness. No young Dutch gentleman, choscn for sitting, could immitate the Polish
style of mounting in such a perfect way. AU arranged portraits painted by Rembrandt, as
well as the figures in allegorical and historical compositions, are detectable by the touch of
theatricality and stylization not without errors. Many types of objects belonging to his own
eollection are repeated in those pictures, but none of the objects shown in the „Lisowczyk"
is to be found in them. It would also be hard to find any parallel in the items of Rembrandt's
inventory recorded after his bankruptcy.
3) The picture represents an officer of Polish light cavalry from the mid-seventeenth eentury
(ca 1655) in costume and arms not differing from those of officers of the Lisowski corps. The
appearance of Polish riders in Holland was not unusual at that time. Many occasions of
embassies, legations, escorts in touring or study trips were noted by historians and still more
were certainly ommited from chronicles and report drawings. Rembrandt's interest in Polish
matters is well known, not only on account of his family relations36. Nevertheless we shall
never know the name of the young Polish officer who commissioned his portrait, or, which
is more probable, was asked by the artist to sit.
The results of this study do not exclude the possibility of hypothesis on any secondary
motives of creation of the picture. The meaning of Rembrandt's works is always complicated
and ambiguous, his symbolic language rich and intricate in the laycrs of objects as well as
in those of light, shadow and colour, the iconography often disguised, enigmatic or indefinite.
Ali thesc features will leave a large portion of the truth on the side of the unknown. The scho-
lars, howcver, do not cease in their research. Taking as a basis the rule of the generał commu-
nionofall ideas, rnatters and objects of man, and the unity of human culture, they reach re-
gions that seem unattainable. In this way also Rembrandt's work becomes richer.
35. The skins of exotic wild animuls werc imported largely to Poland in the XVI and XVII eenturies, mostly from Persia
as Turkey limited this trade owing to its military purpose.
36. Herc may be remembered Jan Makowski (Maccovius), thfl eminent Polish Protestant scholar, who cmigrated to Hol-
land and married Antja Uylenburch, Saskia's sister, See: Z. Batowski, ,,Rembrandtowskie otoczenie i Polacy, in
Księga ku czci L. Pinińskiego, Lwów, 1930.
66
its morc distant genealogy in tlie Eastern cultures. The bridle is of simple workmanship made
of red leather adorned with brass studs. The horse is ridden on the bit. The buntehuk — a horse
taił mounted in an onion shaped holder with decorative net and tassels hangs on the right side
of the horse's neck. Such decoration of harness may also be traced back to Assyrian times and
was later used by the Persians. The Turks generally made it ofyak-hair, but sometimes women's
hair was used. Under Turkish (and Tartar) influence, the custom of black buntchuks as military
distinction of hetmans and of white buntchuks as a harness ornament was largely observed
in Poland; they were made simply of horse hair. There is no evidence that they were more popular
in Hungary than in Poland. Generally speaking, military forces and the development of the
military customs (strongly influenced by the Turks) were much more advanced in the indepen-
dent and powerful State of Poland than in the divided and partly occupied Hungary (fig. 32 — 33).
Our analysis is over. The observations and confrontations made above lead to conclusions
throwing a new Iight on the picture under discussion:
1) Rembrandt painted this picture from naturę. The hypothesis that he based it on the second-
-hand materiał of drawings or engravings of any other artist must be rejected.
2) Rembrandt did not arrangc an artificial model for this picture. It would be hard to assume
that he possessed in his eollection such a complete and exquisite set of Polish costume, arms
and horse harness. No young Dutch gentleman, choscn for sitting, could immitate the Polish
style of mounting in such a perfect way. AU arranged portraits painted by Rembrandt, as
well as the figures in allegorical and historical compositions, are detectable by the touch of
theatricality and stylization not without errors. Many types of objects belonging to his own
eollection are repeated in those pictures, but none of the objects shown in the „Lisowczyk"
is to be found in them. It would also be hard to find any parallel in the items of Rembrandt's
inventory recorded after his bankruptcy.
3) The picture represents an officer of Polish light cavalry from the mid-seventeenth eentury
(ca 1655) in costume and arms not differing from those of officers of the Lisowski corps. The
appearance of Polish riders in Holland was not unusual at that time. Many occasions of
embassies, legations, escorts in touring or study trips were noted by historians and still more
were certainly ommited from chronicles and report drawings. Rembrandt's interest in Polish
matters is well known, not only on account of his family relations36. Nevertheless we shall
never know the name of the young Polish officer who commissioned his portrait, or, which
is more probable, was asked by the artist to sit.
The results of this study do not exclude the possibility of hypothesis on any secondary
motives of creation of the picture. The meaning of Rembrandt's works is always complicated
and ambiguous, his symbolic language rich and intricate in the laycrs of objects as well as
in those of light, shadow and colour, the iconography often disguised, enigmatic or indefinite.
Ali thesc features will leave a large portion of the truth on the side of the unknown. The scho-
lars, howcver, do not cease in their research. Taking as a basis the rule of the generał commu-
nionofall ideas, rnatters and objects of man, and the unity of human culture, they reach re-
gions that seem unattainable. In this way also Rembrandt's work becomes richer.
35. The skins of exotic wild animuls werc imported largely to Poland in the XVI and XVII eenturies, mostly from Persia
as Turkey limited this trade owing to its military purpose.
36. Herc may be remembered Jan Makowski (Maccovius), thfl eminent Polish Protestant scholar, who cmigrated to Hol-
land and married Antja Uylenburch, Saskia's sister, See: Z. Batowski, ,,Rembrandtowskie otoczenie i Polacy, in
Księga ku czci L. Pinińskiego, Lwów, 1930.
66