Continental School, Eighteenth Century

A Young Swordsman

oil on canvas

43 5/8" ×27 1/2" (111 cm×70 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Estate of Thomas L. Summa, Larchmont, New York

Although unsure of the nationality of our young swordsman, he is clothed in Hungarian dress. Decked out in traditional garb, out sitter wears a dolman, a tightly fitted coat cut straight to the waist flaring at the side seams to create a full skirt, overlapping from right to left from the waist to the hemline. Winter dolmans, which this appears to be, were brightly colored made from heavy silk, velvet, or broadcloth. They fastened down the front to the waist with elaborate clasps, buttons, or as in this case braids enriched with gold embroidery. They were generally short to about mid-thigh, the collar narrow and upright with sleeves that extended to the wrist.(1) Trousers were tightly fitted, worn with short soft boots. Typical headgear was a high cap made of a flat bag with trimmed brim, adorned with a plume of crane, eagle, or heron feathers. The belt consisted of four loose sections of chain joined together by three large clasps.(2) In our portrait, the sitter clutches a Hungarian cavalry sword with a falcian (swept-back) blade, a weapon probably more for show than actual use.(3)

A reasonable assumption would be that the origin of the painting must be Hungarian. While this is certainly possible it is not definitive as Hungarian dress from the seventeenth century onward had a special impact on Western European fashion. Hungarians were revered as skilled horsemen and astute hunters. A costly garment such as this would have been worn only by aristocratic military men. Throughout Europe to be shown in clothing of this type would, in a very dramatic fashion, denote wealth and class as well as imply prowess in combat, hunting, and riding.(4) Intended as indicative of his future, a child would be dressed and painted in this manner. Exotic and somewhat timeless, (developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and surviving into the nineteenth century), this costuming further avoided the problem of contemporary fashion that could appear hopelessly dated in a few years.(5)

(1) Emilie E.S. Gordenker, "Cuyp’s Horseman: What do Costumes Tell Us", exhibition catalogue National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Aelbert Cuyp, October 7, 2001 — January 13, 2002, pp. 53-54.

(2) Emöke László, Historic Hungarian Costume from Budapest, exhibition catalogue Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, 1979, pp. 8, 16-17, 46.

(3) Gordenker, p. 56.

(4) Ibid, pp. 55-56.

(5) Ibid, p. 57.

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