The Art Of Warfare

[molly bloom]

Similar I suppose to the weapons thread, but different enough in that it isn't focusing purely on individual weapons.


This is an artillery park, by the designer, inventor, engineer, sculptor, painter and all round polymath mixed race homosexual, Leonardo da Vinci :




A Janissary by Gentile Bellini :



Albrecht Durer: A Soldier On Horseback



The Straits of Gibraltar, from a map for the Ottoman Sultan by the Admiral Piri Reis:



Turks inspecting a cannon they have captured, again by Albrecht Durer :



From a map of Mallorca by Gratiosus Benincasa :



Mehmet The Conqueror from a medal struck by Costanzo da Ferrara:

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I can't imagine wearing a wizard's robe and hat aided the Janissaries much in combat.

[Lancer]

Well said paki. Have to wonder though how bright a past could be so filled with war, death, and torture. Still, the weapons were quite something, artistically beautiful, I agree with that.

[molly bloom]

I can't imagine wearing a wizard's robe and hat aided the Janissaries much in combat.

The Janissary may have been depicted in Sunday (or Friday) best for the artist. Unlike the European nobility and knights, the Janissaries did not scorn to use early gunpowder weapons, and so a lot of Christians (and Muslims too for that matter) ended up defunct.

Pollaiuolo has given us a rather good depiction of a crossbow being prepared for use:



in his 'The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian'- essentially it's the same figure, front and back views. Pollaiuolo is showing off his skill...

Isaac Oliver's depiction of Edward Herbert shows us an interesting contrast- the martial man of action (the shield, the sword in scabbard, the boots, the horses in the background) depicted in a melancholy reflective mood. The motto on the shield has to do with the occult/philosophical doctrine of sympathetic magic...



Now for a spot of naval, not navel gazing- the Dutch of the 17th Century were very good at sea borne warfare and very good at depicting it.

This is van de Velde the Younger's 'Cannon Shot' :




and where would we be without Callot's depiction of the horrors of war ?



aptly, 'The Peasants' Revenge'.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Well said paki.

Whut.

[Dinner]

I didn't understand that one either.

[chequita guevara]

I can't imagine wearing a wizard's robe and hat aided the Janissaries much in combat.

Not all janissaries were involved in combat. He could have been a scribe, a stable boy, etc. A janissary was simply a slave of the Sultan.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I think the sheathed sword and the recurve bow under his left arm suggests a certain fighty theme.

[Dinner]

Not all janissaries were involved in combat. He could have been a scribe, a stable boy, etc. A janissary was simply a slave of the Sultan.

Weren't most of them kidnapped Christian children who were raised as Muslims in attempt to slowly reduce religious minorities in the empire?

[The Mad Monk]

What is that under his right arm? It looks like some sort of carbine, but that doesn't really go with the bow. It might be a quiver, but that looks more like a stock sticking out of it, not arrows.

[Sir Og]

Weren't most of them kidnapped Christian children who were raised as Muslims in attempt to slowly reduce religious minorities in the empire?

Yes. According to the history we were taught.
Also in the movies they were depicted exactly like in that picture. The same pointy hats.

[molly bloom]

Weren't most of them kidnapped Christian children who were raised as Muslims in attempt to slowly reduce religious minorities in the empire?

Not kidnapped. Think of them as conscripted for tax purposes. The families of the Janissaries would usually benefit from having a son in the Royal army or bureaucracy. The greatest of all Ottoman architects, Sinan, was trained as a janissary.

Where might the soldier, sailor or mercenary go for downtime, Dutch stylee in the 17th Century ?:



To Vermeer's Procuress...

...and in modern times :



'The Fleet's In!' by Paul Cadmus. Thank you very much, W.P.A. ...

and from 'De Re Militari', a Renaissance treatise on the art of war, by Robert Valturio, comes a somewhat unlikely siege engine:

[molly bloom]

'Our bruised arms hung up for monuments'...

A moving line from Shakespeare's Richard III in the play of the same name...

From the Royal Artillery Memorial in London :




Nurse Edith Cavell :



Raoul Wallenberg :



Ossip Zadkine's memorial to Rotterdam :



Wilhelm Lehmbruck's 'The Fallen'



and Rodin's 'The Burghers Of Calais' :

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Nurse Edith Cavell :

[ATTACH=CONFIG]176043[/ATTACH]

I didn't know she was Landru.

[molly bloom]

I didn't know she was Landru.

? C'est quoi, cet emission ?