Riders of the Apocalypse” (Hussar Rota), 2023,

Description

Mariusz Kozik’s painting “Riders of the Apocalypse” (Hussar Rota), 2023, is an extraordinary work, imbued with painterly skill and creative imagination. The four hussars depicted in it allude to the biblical horsemen who herald the end of the world, symbolizing war and death. They come from the Bible, from the Book of Revelation, where they appear when the first four seals are broken. They also appear in art, for example, in Albrecht Dürer’s famous woodcut.

The allegorical juxtaposition of hussars in “Riders of the Apocalypse” has a deep historical justification. The Polish hussars, which dominated the battlefields of Europe for two centuries, were a symbol of death for their opponents, inspiring fear and terror. Eyewitnesses of the era wrote about them:
– Stanisław Żółkiewski wrote that the hussars “overcame the enemy like a storm over trees in a forest” – emphasizing their force and ability to break even the heaviest formations.
– Jakub Sobieski (father of Jan III) emphasized that the charge itself “terrified and tore apart the enemy’s ranks before hand-to-hand combat even began.”
– Foreigners noted that the hussars’ charge was almost unstoppable, because they struck in a compact mass, at full gallop, with lances 5-6 meters long.
– The French engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, who spent a long time in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (17th century), wrote that the hussars “are soldiers of beautiful stature, magnificently dressed, with wings of eagle feathers on their saddles or backs, which make them even more terrifying in the eyes of the enemy.” – Paweł Piasecki noted that “the very sight of them, in the gleam of their armor and helmets, inspired fear.”
– The Englishman Fynes Moryson noted that the Poles “in their armor and wings look like knights from ancient legends, and charging, they give the impression of an army of wrathful angels.”
– The thunder of hooves, the crack of lances, and the rustle of wings were described as creating “a noise as if from an entire mountain avalanche.”
– A Swedish officer, after the defeat at Kircholm (1605), noted that “before we had time to fire a volley, the Poles were already among us, like a thunderbolt from heaven.”
– Foreigners repeatedly emphasized that the hussars often won through sheer force and terror, and that their opponents “did not have the courage to endure the collision.”

If we wanted to summarize it in one sentence, we could say:
Eyewitnesses saw the hussars as knights of dazzling appearance and extraordinary discipline, who in battle transformed into a bolt from the blue – terrifying with their momentum, noise, and unstoppable impact. In other words, they saw them as the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.