Kościuszko-54m

[ducz]

Hello good gents,
this time I would like to show you my latest and very special figure -
circa 1794, /Dictator (Naczelnik)/ Andrzej *Tadeusz* (/Thaddeus/)
Bonawentura *Kosciuszko*, the hero of America, Poland, Lithuania, and
Belarus. I am not going to bore you and cite his whole life story for
you - you can read it here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Kościuszko.
But simply citing Thomas Jeffrson statement about Thaddeus may fulfill
our need for lengthy description of his character and persona, so here
you go - Jefferson said that our Thaddeus was "as pure a son of
liberty as I have ever known."

Our story begins when on April 4, 1794 during the Kosciuszko
Uprising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kościuszko_Uprising . with
his hands tied by the constrained strategical position and being
outnumbered by the enemy, our Naczelnik Kosciuszko decided to give
battle to the advancing on his young army but yet marching separately
two ( 2 ) Russian armies. He chose to fight in the fields near the
village of Raclawice, district ofCracow,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Racławice
http://www.raclawice.pl/index.php?o...how&art_id=490&menu_id=444&page=276&page_no=0
I decided to portray dictator Kosciuszko at the most crucial
moment of this hard battle when Naczelnik Thaddeus is about to
personally lead his 320 strong kosyniery (scythes, axes, and pikes
wielding peasant levy) column on the death-spewing Russian artillery as
to break the fighting will of the first Russian army and discourage the
second Russian army from advancing on tho the battlefield. This late
afternoon moment was splendidly painted on the huge canvas of Panorama
Raclawicka by the team of some very talented Polish painters led by the
world's best horse painter Wojciech Kossak and Jan Styka in 1893-94 to
be displayed in the Royal City of Lwow (today Liviv, Ukraine)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racławice_Panorama This is dictator
Kosciuszko from the panorama
http://dziedzictwo.polska.pl/katalog/slide,Kosciuszko_na_koniu,pid,333468,gid,333440,cid,6622.htm

I do live not so far from the battlefield. Many time when I had driven
past the village of Raclawice I looked at the fabulous monument by
professor Konieczny
http://www.raclawice.pl/data/images/zabytki/zabytki32.jpg that showing
one of the peasant participants, Bartosz Glowacki , on the captured
Russian gun, which he smothered with his krakuska hat (see the movie
link to see this episode). It had always motivated me to think about
this battle, about splendid Kosciuszko on his steed, as in the paintings
or sculpture, his general's uniform covered by the peasant coat, and
with his arm outstretched and armed with a Polish saber, ready to
command and win.
As mentioned before you can watch this somewhat fanciful but
splendidly and quite faithfully made film by the pre-1939 Polish Cinema
- battle of Raclawice on youtube, 2 parts :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW2ltwSTsv4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jRI0qEBy74&NR=1

It is for you to judge my modest efforts in this instance, although
I must tell you I did like very much my horse pose, with his foreleg so
lifted, anyway, I sculpted our hero on his spirited steed - with
uniform, tack and arms etc kind advice from Maciek Koncerz Pawlica.
Please note that curbbit and reins etc will come separately cast from
the horse and rider. *This piece will be available commerically
Scale 54mm, material - grey milliput,
All coments are welcome.
Ducz
(text by Dario
http://www.hussar.com.pl/galerie-zdjeciowe/galeria-autorska-dariusza-wielca
)

 

[Guy]

Excellent sculpting Grzegorz. I look forward to seeing it commercially.

 

[Doberdob]

Very good sculpt.I like it.

 

[megroot]

Excellent sculpt.

marc

 

[garyjd]

It's a beautiful figure but there's something odd about the horse's hind legs. I think they are too short. ~Gary

 

[captnenglish]

Excellent sculpting Grzegorz. I look forward to seeing it commercially.

same here

 

[Mark S]

Grzegorz,your figure of Kosciuszko has significance for Australian figure painters as well.
The highest mountain on the Australian continent is named Mount Kosciuszko.It was named by the Polish explorer Paul Edmund de Strzeleckie in 1839.
It's a great figure but I feel I have to agree with Gary about the hind legs-something not right there.

 

[Mike S.]

The problem with the hind legs is that they are too short and squat, especially the right one. I realize the sculptor was attempting to depict the weight of the animal being carried by the hind legs, but too much was taken off of their length in the process.

Also, the upper femur/thigh bone of the right leg does not protrude at such a sharp angle when bent in that position on the real thing. This is throwing off the appearance as well.

 

[je_touche]

Very nice sculpting and one of my favorite periods of history.

One small historical annotation. As so often Kościuszko is depicted wearing the sukmana, the Polish peasants' coat. Thus he was painted by Kossak in the famous Racławice Panorama. To the best of my knowledge tradition has it that before the Battle of Racławice Kościuszko announced he would don the uniform of the unit that would behave most gallantly, so that is why he later adopted this part of the peasant costume, but only AFTER, not DURING the battle.

Inspiring as it is there is a lot of greater and lesser historical mistakes in the panorama, so I would not quite take it at face value.

 

[ducz]

Thanks my friends

 

[ducz]

Hi friends,
I would like to thank you for all your commentaries and helpful hints,
especially for pointing to the spots that you find troubling, i.e., hind
legs.
I will strive to correct some of the problem, however, I must tell you
that it firstly had been my idea to show precisely the position of a
horse sort of 'squatting' on his hind legs before taking off in a
gallop, so in this idea in mind I was trying to maintain it through
out the creation of this piece.
Well, now I will work this piece a bit to correct the parts that can be
corrected, so we shall see
fingers crossed
thanks again

 

[Marcel]

Great looking sculpture!

Marcel.

 

[davidmitchell]

Excellent sculpting and a very unusual subject.

David