Using Agincourt Perry Miniatures for St John's Polyptych of Stargard

St John's Polyptych of Stargard is a very neat altarpiece dating back to years 1450-1460. You can see it on Wikipedia, or even better in the National Museum of Szczecin, in all its glory; the thing is huge and feels holy. On two of its wings, it depicts scenes from the life of Christ, and so it also has its share of armed men. Someone has to do the baby-killing and crucifying, after all. 

For someone seeking references for late 15th century Pomeranian soldiers, the Polyptych is invaluable, even though it's more stylised than relatively realistic paintings of Gdańsk and Kołobrzeg. The altarpiece is from the very same Stargard from which hails one of the pavisemen I painted. 

I haven't included the Polyptych in my earlier overviews of Perry kits as, even though the altarpiece is barely 10-20 years older than the Gdańsk's "Siege of Malbork", it depicts decidedly older-looking arms and armour, which you can't really find in the War of the Roses-era models. I read somewhere that in medieval Europe, every few decades there was a quite sudden change in the look and style of military equipment, so maybe in Pomerania that shift happened between 1450s and 1470s; or maybe the painters depicted some old equipment they had lying around; or maybe West Pomerania was a backwater behind the times. We don't really know. The sources are sparse.

No descriptions this time. My amateur historian skills would be even more amateur in an earlier historical period. The highlighted bits are pretty close to the adjacent fragments of the Polyptych. A black outline and no highlight means some similarities are there, even though it doesn't feel like one-to-one correspondence.

 

Agincourt French Infantry: 

Agincourt French Knights:

Agincourt English Knights:

 

Bonus: in the picture from the Polyptych above, is that a pointed half-visored English-style sallet? If it is, it means that pointed sallets I discarded as absent from sources in my War of the Roses-era kits are actually attested in Pomeranian artwork. But maybe it's just a bascinet, matching the other helmets of the altarpiece. In the same picture there is a bulbous kettlehat helmet, absent from Agincourt kits but present in one of the later-era kits (Mercenaries? Light Cavalry?).

 

Overall, the Agincourt kits feel like a good match for the Polyptych, and if someone aims to recreate the vile bloodthirsty soldiers of the altarpiece, they would work well. For me, their major disadvantage over the competing War of the Roses kits is purely aesthetic: I outright enjoy the later-era fashions with their short doublets and sexy tight pants.

(Source: Zofia Krzymuska-Fafius, "Plastyka gotycka na Pomorzu Zachodnim", Szczecin 1962. Polyptych art courtesy of Wikipedia, sprue photos taken from the Perry Miniatures website.)