Spanish Arms and Armour: Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of MadridCalvert, Albert Frederick
History
Spanish Arms and Armour: Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of Madrid
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Arms and armor -- Spain; Real Armería de Madrid
The figure A93 (plate 27) shows the armour as worn for combat on foot in
_champ-clos_. The helmet has a complete set of reinforcing pieces. The
roped edge of the breastplate is placed over the gorget. The pauldrons
are large, and furnished with pike-guards. The lamboys are in
bell-shaped halves, joined by sliding rivets. The lowest or outermost
plate can be detached at will, and is decorated with bas-reliefs of
bears and deer pursued by dogs on a gilded ground. Beneath is a
“baticol,” or kind of breeches, of burnished steel, “articulated with
great skill and precision, so as to defend the body without hindering
its movements.” Cuisses, genouillères, and jambs complete the suit.
The tilting pieces attached to the harness are shown on the second
figure (A101--plate 20). The helm, similar to that of A37, is decorated
with gold bands, and is fifteen millimetres thick at the visor. It is
screwed on to the over-breastplate. The arm defences are very handsome,
being gilded, embossed, and engraved so as to resemble the civil dress
of the period. The right coude bears the emblem of the Golden Fleece,
and would appear from the Relacion de Valladolid to have been a prize
won or competed for at tournaments. The armour on the left arm will only
permit the arm to be bent towards the pommel of the saddle.
The cuisses are laminated, and the influence of the civil dress is seen
once more in the genouillères which are composed of strips of metal
placed vertically, so as to give the “slashed” appearance common to the
trunk-hose and sleeves of the period. The jambs are engraved with floral
devices. The sollerets are of mail.
The third figure (A103), described as including the pieces necessary for
war or hunting, does not call for special notice.
A108 is a light harness for war, made by Colman Helmschmied. The emblem
of the Golden Fleece predominates in the scheme of its decoration. Of
this suit the Conde de Valencia says:
“Time has dimmed the effect of its sober and severe ornamentation of
gold on a black ground, confined to a few narrow longitudinal stripes
engraved and gilded. It has the ‘bars’ of the Golden Fleece on the
helmet, the guards, and the shield; two winged griffins, supporting the
Pillars of Hercules on the backplates of the pauldrons, and the image of
Our Lady on the breastplate. According to the Emperor’s inventory, the
backplate, which does not exist, bore the image of St. Barbara.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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