Vida nómada - History Lab https://historylab.es Thu, 19 May 2022 15:04:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://historylab.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-icono-historylab-32x32.jpg Vida nómada - History Lab https://historylab.es 32 32 The gypsies on the move: the rearguard https://historylab.es/the-gypsies-on-the-move-the-rearguard/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-gypsies-on-the-move-the-rearguard Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/los-gitanos-en-marcha-la-retaguardia/ Engraving by Jacques Callot of gypsies on the march, included in the series Les Bohémiens (1621-1625)

The post The gypsies on the move: the rearguard first appeared on History Lab.

]]> The series of four etchings by Jacques Callot (1592-1635) stands out in the iconography of the wandering life of the gypsies. It is known as Les Bohémiens and was published between 1621 and 1625. The first print is entitled The Gypsies on the March: The Rearguard, and offers a warlike vision of the male Gypsies. This is not the skilled gypsy who works with metal or the shaman who deals with animals, but the fully armed professional warrior who offers himself as a mercenary. They wear jackets, high soft boots and wide-brimmed hats with feathers. Like so many of them, he travels with his family, duly accommodated in a wagon with spoked wheels that largely solved their housing problem. They carried blankets, rugs, barrels, clothes and other kitchen utensils. The image is also a reminder that the Gypsy people are actually made up of many different tribal-like groups that can properly be considered as clans. The leadership they know almost always refers to an older person who is usually, but not always, a man. This picture shows three generations of gypsies, the most comfortable place being for the elders. An old man with no military attributes, perhaps the patriarch, drives the cart mounted on a penco. The oldest woman rides in the carriage while the others are divided up: some on old nags, others on donkeys and the rest, even if they are pregnant, walk. Some of the women are covered with striped cloaks and all are barefoot, surrounded and embraced by countless children on their backs, on their laps or on their chests. The little ones carry animals in their arms, have learned to walk barefoot and are busy playing, either with their father’s hat or some utensil on their heads. The couplet that can be read at the top of the engraving limits itself to saying indulgently what they are, poor beggars, and to making a sceptical statement about what is expected of them, future promises, good fortune: “These poor beggars laden with good fortune/bring nothing but future things”.

The post The gypsies on the move: the rearguard first appeared on History Lab.

]]> Landscape with gypsy camp https://historylab.es/landscape-with-gypsy-camp/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=landscape-with-gypsy-camp Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:21 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/paisaje-con-campamento-gitano/ Engraving by Aegidius Sadeler II, depicting a gypsy encampment, dated 1600

The post Landscape with gypsy camp first appeared on History Lab.

]]> This landscape by the Flemish engraver Aegidius Sadeler II (1570-1629) confirms that the trades of blacksmith and coppersmith were common practice among the Gypsies. Next to the three men seated in a semicircle in the background, various tools (an anvil, tongs and the hammers carried by two of them) are arranged in the foreground, alluding to forging work. It is quite possible that the Gypsies learned the art of metalworking in India, their place of origin, and brought it to Europe after their arrival in the early 15th century. In the Gypsy camp there are also two pack animals, which could be a mule or a donkey, and with which, together with the horse, the male Gypsies traded, either with people passing through or at fairs. This earned them the nickname of chalanes, a word used to refer to a person who buys and sells animals (mainly horses) in a skilful and persuasive manner. It is known that they did not dedicate themselves exclusively to buying and selling, but that they sometimes adorned or embellished the animals in order to obtain a greater economic benefit from the transactions.

The post Landscape with gypsy camp first appeared on History Lab.

]]>