<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div>Thank you for the post Lord Mungo, this picture is of much interest to me!<br></div><div><br></div><div>Janyn<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr"><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><b>From: </b>"Garth Groff" <sarahsan@embarqmail.com><br><b>To: </b>archers@seahorse.atlantia.sca.org<br><b>Sent: </b>Thursday, June 4, 2015 6:51:49 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>[Archers] St. Sebastian by Gerrit van Honthorst<br><div><br></div>
Noble Friends of the Bow,<br>
<br>
While cataloging a French art book today I ran across this painting
of Saint Sebastian, being shot full of arrows:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gerrit-van-honthorst-saint-sebastian" target="_blank">http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gerrit-van-honthorst-saint-sebastian</a>
. The painting is by Gerrit van Honthorst and dates to 1623. While
nobody can be completely sure of how accurate the presentation of
the arrows is, there is a good chance that these have at least some
authentic period features. I have seen at least one portrait of a
nobleman with his arrows that dates to about 1550 with similar
arrows, so I feel pretty comfortable they can be taken as fairly
accurate representations for late period SCA use. <br>
<br>
Since 1623 was pretty much past the end of military archery, we can
be reasonably certain these are gentlemen's sporting arrows. This is
further suggested by the cresting, as a lower class archer would
probably make their own arrows without cresting. These were likely
professionally made. All four arrows have more or less the same
crest, from the point end there are two black bands, then some sort
of figure or design which cannot be clearly seen on any of the four,
two more black bands, then three more black bands just before the
fletch. One has two black bands between the fletch and the nock. If
the artist painted from life, than all the arrows probably were made
by, or belonged to, the same person. <br>
<br>
Three of the arrows seem to have the same color fletches, a white
cock feather and two red hen feathers. The arrow which is lodged in
the saint's breast (it is also the arrow with the extra cresting
below the nock) shows two white feathers. Since it is somewhat
different, this arrow might have been from a different batch, or
might have had some special use by its owner. There are three
different fletch shapes here. The arrow through the saint's arm has
swallow tails, and the fletch is slightly rounded. The arrow through
his thigh has straight-cut shield-back fletches. The remaining two
arrows are both slope-backed shield-cut. In short, though the arrows
appear to be of a family, they are all slightly different. None of
the fletches appear to be bound on with thread.<br>
<br>
The shafts appear to be unpainted. They were likely treated with
boiled linseed oil, or a beeswax and tallow mix. All are
self-nocked.<br>
<br>
What seems odd is that the two arrows which have gone through the
saint's limbs do not appear to have points. Particular the arrow
through the thigh, <b>seems</b> to be just sharpened wood. Perhaps
there are points here, but they are obscured by blood. The arm shot
is very hard to see due to the shadow effects, but appears to be the
same.<br>
<br>
I loved seeing what I could squeeze out of this picture. Anyone else
have different opinions?<br>
<br>
Yours Aye,<br>
<br>
<br>
Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>Archers mailing list<br>Archers@seahorse.atlantia.sca.org<br>http://seahorse.atlantia.sca.org/listinfo.cgi/archers-atlantia.sca.org<br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>