Battle of Orsha (painting)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Painting Battle of Orsha
Battle of Orsha
Anonymous artist, 1524–1530
165 × 262 cm
tempera on oak
National Museum Warsaw

The Battle of Orscha is a history painting from the years 1524 to 1530. The attribution to an artist is controversial. The painting, 165 centimeters high and 262 centimeters wide, executed in tempera on oak, shows the battle of Orsha from the year 1514. It is in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw .

Image description

The painting represents the Battle of Orsha , a battle of the Russo-Lithuanian War 1512–1522 , which was fought on September 8, 1514. The first impression of the painting is chaotic. The events are represented simultaneously, so that there are episodes with the same characters in the picture that do not reveal any chronological sequence. The painting is designed to be read right to left and in horizontal image zones from bottom to top. The depiction was made from an elevated, subjective perspective known from northern Alpine artists of the 15th century. The battle is perceived from the Polish side.

The lower edge of the picture shows the Dnepr seen from the northwest , the further course of which towards the south can be seen on the right edge of the picture. Thus the sandy battlefield overgrown with spruce is limited. The figures give the impression of being teeming with people, but are usually organized in groups of seven or a multitude of seven. Other group sizes are also repeated several times in the picture. This could have a numerical symbolic meaning. On the right edge of the picture is the camp of the Polish-Lithuanian troops crossing the Dnieper. The troops are then prepared for battle. The third sequence in the center of the painting shows the battle itself, in which both infantry and cavalry fight. To the left follows the victory of the Polish-Lithuanian troops. A large block of horsemen from the Grand Duchy of Moscow waiting to be deployed can be seen, but the Moscow troops are already disbanding.

The panel has been slightly trimmed on the upper edge and on both sides, but is overall in good condition with no major damage or retouching.

background

The history of the painting is not clearly clarified. Perhaps it came about shortly after the battle in Krakow . When it appeared in the Museum of Silesian Antiquities at the end of the 19th century , the motif was correctly identified by German art historians. At that time the picture was attributed to the German painter Jörg Breu the Elder , who died in 1537. Later it was assigned more to an anonymous Polish artist under the influence of Lucas Cranach the Elder . This position was represented by the art historians S. Herbst and M. Walicki. They also hypothesized that the composition was created in close proximity to the battle. Even Hans Krell was drawn as an artist of the painting into consideration.

The Polish art historian Jan Białostocki made a connection between the cannon in the foreground and the well-known etching of a cannon by Albrecht Dürer from 1518 and concluded that the artist of the Battle of Orsha did not have an original cannon, but the graphic as a model. However, the gun historian Zofia Stefanska rejected this position, pointing to the greater detail of the cannon in the painting and rather suggested a reverse image transfer. Aside from this controversy, the Battle of Orsha is recognized as a source for the study of the weapons and armor of the time. In addition to the Battle of Alexander by Albrecht Altdorfer and The Battle of Zama by Jörg Breu the Elder, the Battle of Orscha is one of the most important battle paintings of the 16th century, which differs from the first two in that they are freely imagined during the artist of this painting was probably an eyewitness to the city.

Provenance

The painting Battle of Orscha was painted between 1524 and 1530 on behalf of the Polish King Sigismund I or the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Konstantin Iwanowitsch Ostroschski . In the middle of the 19th century, the Secret Council Johann Wilhelm Oelsner acquired the picture from a Warsaw monastery. In the late 19th century it was bequeathed to the Museum of Silesian Antiquities . After the end of the Second World War , the painting was transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw in 1945 .

literature

  • Dieter Köpplin: New works by Lukas Cranach and an old picture of a Polish battle - by Hans Krell? Basel 2003, ISBN 3-7965-1986-5 .
  • Zdzisław Zygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, pp. 108-143.
  • Jiři Fajt, Markus Hörsch, Susanne Jaeger (eds.): Europa Jagellonica 1386-1572: sztuka i kultura w Europie Środkowej za panowania Jagiellonów. 2012, ISBN 978-83-7022-195-9 .
  • Dorota Folga-Januszewska, Andrzej Rottermund, Lech Majewski (Eds.): Polish Commonwealth Treasures: On the History of Polish Collecting from the 13th Century to the Late 18th. Bosz 2008, ISBN 978-83-87730-81-9 .

Web links

Commons : Battle of Orša (painting)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Zdzisław Zygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 111.
  2. ↑ Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology , Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 116.
  3. ↑ Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 121.
  4. ↑ Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 126.
  5. ↑ Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 131.
  6. ↑ a b c d Zdzisław Zygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, p. 109.
  7. ↑ Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr .: The Battle of Orsha. An Explication of the Arms, Armor, Costumes, Accoutrements and other Matters for Consideration Portrayed in the Approximately Contemporary Painting of a Battle Fought in Byelorussia in 1314. In: Robert Held (Ed.): Art, arms and armor: an international anthology. Volume 1, Chiasso 1979, pp. 138f.