Posts: 94 Location: Slovakia
Wed 02 Sep, 2009 9:09 am
A "sabre proper" in 15th century italian painting
Though the majority of altair pieces and religious paintings from the 15th century europe show the "Turks" armed with wickedly curved falchions , messers and the like , there is an exceptional paiting from Giovanni Bellini. His "Resurrection of Christ" painted 1475-79 shows both a curved sword with a falchionic "clipped point" ( the figure on far left;the feature seems to be also present on some messer pieces as well) as well as a "sabre-proper" ( the figure on the far right) , note the general S profile of the whole weapon. The curved blade , canted hilt , crossguard and (tiny) pommel are reminiscent of the sabres used by Ottomans / Hungarians and various Balkan people during the 15th/ early 16th century.
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As a Venetian, Bellini might have seen a sabre for real , since during the second half of the 15th century a huge number of Greco-Albanian refugees fled from the Balkans and settled in various Italian states , where they served as bordermen / Stratiots. It might not be entirely impossible that the weapon depicted is of Stratioti origin , whose armamanet is described as similar to that of Turks.
Cheers ,
Samuel
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