Alfred Freddy KRUPA

His Excellency Baron Alfred Freddy Krupa (Krūppa), Hereditary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Ikamba) (他的男爵閣下阿爾弗雷德·弗雷迪克魯帕)

Croatia


First coat of arms (Tarnawa coat of arms with supporters) Artist: Alfred Freddy Krupa	Second coat of arms Artist: David J. Lake-Schweitzer

Crest: From crest coronet issuant five ostrich feathers Argent.

Mantling: Gules doubled Argent.

Supporters: on a compartment of a stem of two tree branches Argent, dexter a Levite priest in ephod proper, sinister a wolf rampant Or.

Arms: Azure, dexter an artist's brush ward downward bendwise Or tipped Sable, sinister a drawing feather bendwise sinister Or.

Alfred Freddy Krupa is a Croatian artist who paints East Asian ink wash or ink brush paintings (shui-mo hua or 水墨畫 in Chinese, sumi-e or 墨絵 in Japanese), an art form that originated in China in the Tang Dynasty and spread to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. Some of his works have been exhibited in art exhibitions in China. In addition, he has assumed a Chinese name, which is a transliteration of his European name (as opposed to a new Chinese-style name). The Chinese Armorial has registered his coats of arms due to his devotion to this Chinese art form.

The armiger's grandfather was the famed Croatian-Yugoslavian watercolour painter and draftsman Alfred Joseph Krupa. The armiger studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, and now teaches fine art at the Secondary School Duga Resa. He was the first Croatian painter to receive a Japanese Government Scholarship and studied at the Research Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo Gakugei University. He is a Member of the Croatian Association of Artists - Zagreb (HDLU) and the INSEA-Croatian Council. He is also an artist member of the International Chinese Calligraphy and Ink Painting Society in Japan. He has written for the e-magazine Beyond Calligraphy. His works are in public and private collections in Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Bosnia, United States, United Kingdom, Croatia, Azerbaijan, and Guatemala.

The armiger is descended from Khazars, a Turkic people who lived in Khazaria in Central Asia, on the Silk Route. The Khazar Lower King (Shad/Beg), the Higher King/Emperor (Kagan), and some members of ruling clans converted to Judaism. The armiger is descended from Judaized Khazars. His later ancestors converted to Christianity, possibly forcibly, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Krupa family uses the Tarnawa coat of arms; in Polish heraldry, several unrelated families can share the same coat of arms. The Tarnawa coat of arms is basically a red shield with a white cross and a gold crescent pointed to the left (dexter). However, the shape of the cross varies in historical depictions.

The armiger assumed supporters to represent his varied ancestry. The Levite priest symbolizes the Jewish ancestors. The golden wolf symbolizes the Ashina clan of Khazars; the clan had used a wolf's head totem. The wolf also represents the Turkic Shamanism of his paternal ancestors. The compartment, a tree branch, represents the armiger's connection to his ancestors.

The armiger assumed a second coat of arms when H.M. King Jean Baptiste Kigeli V, King of Rwanda in exile, bestowed on him the noble title of a baron and the Royal Order of the Crown (Ikamba) in the rank of a Knight Grand Cross. These honours were for the artistic services performed for the Rwandan crown. The illustration of the coat of arms shows the coronet of a Belgian baron above the shield; Belgium was the former colonial power in Rwanda.

The artist's brush and drawing feather symbolize the Krupa family's multigenerational devotion to painting and form the letter V, a symbol for victory, in talent and expression in fine arts. The colour gold symbolizes the value of art. The blue background symbolizes the Eternal Blue Sky and its blessing.