petermorwood:
illustratus:
Guardroom Interior with Armour and a Standard Behind
by Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger
Paintings like these (as well as food and smoking still-lifes) are great snapshots of “things as they looked and were done back then”, and leaving aside the way artists loaded them with Symbolism, they were the phonecam / Instagram pics of their day (though taking rather longer to create than just “click”…)
For instance, look at how the man with the pipe has wrapped himself in his cloak before (or after) being out of doors, or the way the drinker holds his glass by the base, as done by this living-history reenactor of the Sealed Knot Society.
(That pic is from “The English Civil War in Colour Photographs” by Honeywell & Speare - worth getting for any writer / artist interested in the period; it features several reenactment / living history groups, all of whose costuming and research is very sound.)
I’ve seen photos of period arsenals, and all those pieces of armour and the standard would usually be been put away more neatly. However, the artist evidently wanted a Picturesque Pile, otherwise with armour stored Here, helmets stored There and shields and banners hung up Somewhere Else, they wouldn’t all have been visible in a single frame.
Instead I can see…
…a breastplate with faulds (hip / crotch protection plates) and its associated backplate with reinforced shoulder-straps…
…a rondache shield…
…a cabasset helmet…
…a gorget…
…and what might be another cabasset or possibly a “pikeman’s pot” with the liner visible.
The mid-17th century isn’t quite my Period of Preference, but where fantasy is concerned any research can be turned to good use.
Just file the serial number off, give it a new coat of paint and send it as out as good as new but different… :->
(via pathfinderswiftpen)
