09-28-2007, 01:34 AM
Thanks for the interesting comments especially to Patrik! Because of you I looked through my books for answers and straight away found something entirely different which will be really helpful for my research into Roman military clothing!
I did have reservations about posting these pictures here on RAT and this was actually the first time I have ever painted Gladiators.
As I know a lot of you use my work in your own research I do not like making mistakes and certainly not more than five, so your comments deserve some answers.
Firstly the excuses. :oops: The book was commissioned via an Agent. The client provided a strict deadline, ten pictures were required but in spite of the fact that the book was on Gladiators only three pictures had Gladiators in!!! The client also provided a brief of what they wanted in the illustrations, this was not as restrictive as another book I worked on about Ancient Greece, where the clients ideas of what all hoplite armour should look like appeared to have been inspired by the 1950's movies 'Helen of Troy' and Alexander the Great'!
There was also a series of design layouts which the illustrations had to fit, these can often be very challenging shapes and not always ideal. (perhaps the worst was fitting pikemen into an 'L' shape, the clients design did it because his pikes were five foot long!) So please bare all this in mind with some of the following answers.
Trident and secutor: Well I know the source I used for for these, so I am now searching for what they might have been based on. I will update you on those as and when I get the information.
Hoplomachus: I am in the same company here as Junkelmann and Angus McBride who have both depicted this gladiator with a griffin crest. The Junkelmann reconstruction was in the British Museum publication accompanying the ancient sports and spectacle exhibition while McBrides illustration was in the much maligned Osprey Gladiator book. I kept a copy of all the errors in that book that were pointed out here on RAT a few years ago but funnily enough the griffin on the Hoplomachus crest was not one of them! Nevertheless due to the deadline I broke one of my own rules here that you should always check the original sources first wherever possible rather than copy modern works. Mea Culpa!
Fighting poses. Well I am a bit surprised with Patriks' comments on this one as all the poses are based on original sources. Even a brief glance through the available images reveal a variety of stances other than the simple jab with the gladius. The over the shield thrust is very common and the two gladiators fighting is a straight copy off a terracotta. Even the pose with the raised gladius is seen many times, although usually striking an opponent rather than hitting a post. Nevertheless as this was supposed to be a training scene anyway, any 'errors' on behalf of the recruits would indeed deserve a blow from the Doctores. I am sure that photographs of any gladiator re-enactor group in action would reveal far more poses than the straightforward legionary prod which by the way would not have been accepted by the client as they wanted action!
Strophium. A far more simple explanation here. The book was for children and unlike some children's books I have seen in France, Spain and Germany which can be quite graphic as regards both nudity and violence, that would probably not be tolerated in the UK and certainly not in America where the book was published.
Hope this explains some things.
Graham.
P.s. Mark, the Gladiatrix is not Susannah Shadrake but you are now getting very warm!
I did have reservations about posting these pictures here on RAT and this was actually the first time I have ever painted Gladiators.
As I know a lot of you use my work in your own research I do not like making mistakes and certainly not more than five, so your comments deserve some answers.
Firstly the excuses. :oops: The book was commissioned via an Agent. The client provided a strict deadline, ten pictures were required but in spite of the fact that the book was on Gladiators only three pictures had Gladiators in!!! The client also provided a brief of what they wanted in the illustrations, this was not as restrictive as another book I worked on about Ancient Greece, where the clients ideas of what all hoplite armour should look like appeared to have been inspired by the 1950's movies 'Helen of Troy' and Alexander the Great'!
There was also a series of design layouts which the illustrations had to fit, these can often be very challenging shapes and not always ideal. (perhaps the worst was fitting pikemen into an 'L' shape, the clients design did it because his pikes were five foot long!) So please bare all this in mind with some of the following answers.
Trident and secutor: Well I know the source I used for for these, so I am now searching for what they might have been based on. I will update you on those as and when I get the information.
Hoplomachus: I am in the same company here as Junkelmann and Angus McBride who have both depicted this gladiator with a griffin crest. The Junkelmann reconstruction was in the British Museum publication accompanying the ancient sports and spectacle exhibition while McBrides illustration was in the much maligned Osprey Gladiator book. I kept a copy of all the errors in that book that were pointed out here on RAT a few years ago but funnily enough the griffin on the Hoplomachus crest was not one of them! Nevertheless due to the deadline I broke one of my own rules here that you should always check the original sources first wherever possible rather than copy modern works. Mea Culpa!
Fighting poses. Well I am a bit surprised with Patriks' comments on this one as all the poses are based on original sources. Even a brief glance through the available images reveal a variety of stances other than the simple jab with the gladius. The over the shield thrust is very common and the two gladiators fighting is a straight copy off a terracotta. Even the pose with the raised gladius is seen many times, although usually striking an opponent rather than hitting a post. Nevertheless as this was supposed to be a training scene anyway, any 'errors' on behalf of the recruits would indeed deserve a blow from the Doctores. I am sure that photographs of any gladiator re-enactor group in action would reveal far more poses than the straightforward legionary prod which by the way would not have been accepted by the client as they wanted action!
Strophium. A far more simple explanation here. The book was for children and unlike some children's books I have seen in France, Spain and Germany which can be quite graphic as regards both nudity and violence, that would probably not be tolerated in the UK and certainly not in America where the book was published.
Hope this explains some things.
Graham.
P.s. Mark, the Gladiatrix is not Susannah Shadrake but you are now getting very warm!
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
