Visual image of the Mongols in the Battle of Legnica in visual monuments of the 14th–15th centuries

Abstract

The Western campaign of the Mongols in Eastern and Central Europe in 1236–1242, led by Batu and the military commander Subedei, has long been imprinted in the memory of contemporaries and descendants. The central place in the historical literary and visual monuments of the Late Middle Ages was occupied by the Battle of Legnica — a battle between the Polish-German army and the Mongols on April 9, 1241. This article examines the image of the Mongols in book miniatures of the Shlakenwerter Codex, presented in the Getty Museum (USA), on an altar painting created in the 30–40s. The 15th century is currently in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw and in the images of the Freytag Codex, stored in the collections of the library of the University of Wroclaw (Poland). The author notes the preserved interest of Europeans in the Gentiles and in the events of the past centuries. The corpus of ethnic markers used by European artists to designate “strangers” is highlighted. Also, an association is made between the creation of images with Mongols in regard to the invasions of Tatar and Hussite troops in Silesia in the 14th–15th centuries and the struggle with the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula as well as the need to consolidate Christian society in the fight against the enemies of the Catholic Church.