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Husaria

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Description

The Polish winged hussars (1500-1776).

Second entry for the :iconstrictlycomedrawing: contest. Theme: Time Traveler.

At the Battle of Vienna, 1683, the Polish King John Sobieski led the elite polish lancers agains the Turkish army and won a victory that turned the tide of the Ottoman-Hapsburg wars.

The husaria were considered the "tanks" of their time because of the astounding success rate they enjoyed. They employed hollowed lances up to five meters long which tore through the enemy's armour with ease, as well as a sabre for closer combat.

The wings they wore were light wooden frames attached to their backs, or to the horse's saddle, adorned with eagle or ostrich feathers - for quite some time historians believed they made a noise that scared the enemy horses, but in reality the wings were probably too cumbersome to use in actual battle and were likely only seen on the parade ground. Quite a number of paintings depict them with their wings, however, so I thought it appropriately dramatic and well preceded to do so myself.

Despite the enormous amount of time this took (literally twelve straight hours after the initial sketch - boy was I behind!) it was a great experience to work from so many references for maximum historical accuracy.

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Image size
1652x891px 1.04 MB
© 2010 - 2024 septemnox
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GoldenHeartWarrior's avatar
Ehhh...  Husaria... best of best... Awesome picture!