A Condottiere

This week's post is all about an historical character,

with just a little bit of fiction thrown in to spice it up ...

This little baby cabinet - measuring just 10 x 10 and standing proud at 35cm ...

started out life as a display / gift box for some sort of bottle ( alcohol presumably ).

 I have rescued it from the dump then covered it with hand-made paper

and used my magic to give it the appearance of aged leather ...

... unfasten the latch and slowly open the door ...

... to reveal the story inside ...

... a friend gave me a pile of circa 1920 art books that once belonged to her mum

and I have committed sacrilege by pulling the books apart

( all in the service of art of course )

- the rescued images may find their way into future artworks

and the pile of wonderful thick 100-year-old paper pages,

well who knows what re-purpose I will find for them ...

A Condottiere - Painting by Lord Frederic Leighton approx. 1870s

The Condottiere were leaders of military companies  ( made up by and large of foreign soldiers ) in the Middle Ages. These companies played an important part in Italian history during the 14^th and 15^th centuries as they were hired out to carry on the conflicts which constantly arose between the Republican Governments and the powerful lordships which existed, it being deemed much safer for a tyrant who usurped the functions of government to engage a mercenary army to protect and support him, rather than arm his own subjects.

A severe discipline was introduced into the company itself, while in its relations to the people the most barbaric license was allowed. Its members were clad in armour from head to foot; and one of the most famous of the condottiere was Englishman Sir John Hawkwood.

Sir John Hawkwood (c. 1323–1394) - the second son of Gilbert Hawkwood - a gentleman and landowner of "considerable wealth" - was an English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or condottiere in Italy.

This beautiful bucolic scene by an unknown artist is a representation of the privileged and wasted lifestyle our condottiere was born into, but as an adult, rejected to lead a life of raw bloodied adventure in the service of his warring Italian lordships.

The ledges above and below the image of the condottiere contain books and scrolls narrating his many adventures and exciting experiences fighting wars in Italy ...

... while the ledges above and below the image of the spoilt life he left behind in England, whilst paved with gold, are empty dull and purposeless ...

Sir John Hawkwood

His eyes, though sad and maybe longing for a different more settled life,

are nevertheless those of a proud soldier that has seen many conflicts

and hardships, and his hands, stained with the blood of the opponents

who unfortunately got in his way - bear testament to his trade ...

such is the life of a mercenary ...

His exploits made him a man shrouded in myth in both England and Italy. Much of his enduring fame though results from the surviving large and prominent fresco portrait of him in the Duomo, Florence, made in 1436 by Paolo Uccello.

image from Wikipedia

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... and so another case is closed ...