[Archers] Absurd Bow

[Elizabeth Dorris]

You?! A Balloon Popper?! Never! [😉]


This is a fun find Mungo :)


-Lady Vittoria

________________________________
From: Archers <archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org> on behalf of Scott Dean <scott_dean at mindspring.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 7:43:40 AM
To: Garth Groff
Cc: archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [Archers] Absurd Bow

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<mailto: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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