[Archers] Absurd Bow

[Scott Dean]

To me it looks .like the artist painted the upper limb of a recurve and the
lower limb of a long bow.  Given the disproportionate rendering of the
people in the painting, I guess I am not that surprised that the rendering
of the bow would have "artistic license".

-- Manus MacDhai
   Windmasters' HIll



On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 5:30 AM, Garth Groff <sarahsan at embarqmail.com>
wrote:

> Noble Friends of the Bow,
>
> This painting, "Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia" painted in 1682 by
> Claude Lorrain, is a prime example of why relying on artistic renderings as
> a source of historical archery information can be hazardous:
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Ascanius
> _Shooting_the_Stag_of_Sylvia_1682_Claude_Lorrain.jpg . While I will allow
> that a model may have posed for the artist, and will also allow that a bow
> may have been held by the model, I find it dubious that a bow with such an
> obvious hinge would be typical. In the largest blow-up of this painting
> available on Wikipedia, it appears that the upper and lower parts of the
> string do not even meet the nock of that gargantuan arrow.
>
> Claude, as he was generally known, was notorious for his bad depiction of
> figures. The text of the Wikipedia article says:
>
> "Although virtually every painting by Claude contains figures, even if
> only a shepherd, their weakness has been always been recognized, not least
> by Claude himself; according to his biographer Filippo Baldinucci he joked
> that he charged for his landscapes, but gave the figures for free.
> According to his other contemporary biographer Joachim von Sandrart he had
> made considerable efforts to improve them, but without success; certainly
> there are numerous studies, typically for groups of figures, among his
> drawings.
>
> "In Claude's last years his figures tend to become ever more elongated, a
> process taken to an extreme in this painting, of which even its owner says
> "The hunters are impossibly elongated – Ascanius, in particular, is
> absurdly top-heavy". Its pendant has figures almost as extreme. With the
> mid-20th fashion for medical diagnosis through art, it was suggested that
> Claude had developed an optical condition producing such effects, but this
> has been rejected by doctors and critics alike."
>
> Given the artist's reputation, I cannot accept the bow as anymore
> authentic than his grotesque people.
>
> OTOH, I was initially outraged at the ridiculous-looking bulbous arrow
> points depicted in the famous illumination of the men shooting at the butts
> from the LUTTREL PSALTER: http://www.medievalists.net/wp
> -content/uploads/2011/01/Geoffrey_luttrell_psalter_1325_longbowmen.jpg .
> Little did I know!  As it turns out, these special arrows allowed peasants
> living within the royal forests to practice archery for war and to hunt
> small game, but prevented poaching of the king's deer. Such arrows may be
> what are referred to as "boults" in various period documents (in handbow
> context, rather than for crossbows). See Mike Loades THE LONGBOW (Osprey
> Publishing, 2013), pages 30-31, for examples and further discussion.
>
> Yours Aye,
>
>
> Lord Mungo Napier, Balloon-popper Extraordinaire
>
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