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 same scheme of decoration is exhibited by the armour (A274-A276)
made in 1558 for the unfortunate Prince Charles, son of Philip II. It
was made for him by Sigmund Wolf when the Prince was thirteen or
fourteen years of age. The difference in size between the right and left
pauldrons goes to prove that the Prince was slightly deformed, as has,
indeed, been often asserted. The first figure (A274, plate 52) has a
morion with high comb, visor, and beavor secured by a hook on the left
and a button on the right side. The tassets are continued to the knee
after the lobster-tail style then becoming fashionable.
Of the arms and detached pieces of armour ascribed to Philip II., and
included in the Armoury, the most remarkable is the sword (G47)
belonging to the parade-armour A239.
The blade is of diamond section, with a short groove below the tang. The
first third of its length is adorned with engravings and small squares
of gold, enclosed in which we find these inscriptions, on one side--PRO
FIDE ET PATRIA. PRO CHRISTO ET PATRIA. INTER ARMA SILENT LEGES SOLI DEO
GLORIA; on the other--PVGNA PRO PATRIA. PRO ARIS ET FOCIS; NEC TEMERE,
NEC TIMIDE, FIDE SED CVI VIDE. On the ricasso is the mark of the maker,
Clement Horn, of Solingen. The hilt is the most remarkable in the
collection. It is blued and carved in gold relief in the Italian
renaissance style. The centre of the guard is decorated with numerous
figures in high relief on a gilded ground; one quillon curves downwards,
the other upwards, and both end in the heads and busts of men entwined
about with spirals. From a cartouche engraved with the Judgment of Paris
on the guard, springs an exquisite counter-guard composed of two
beautiful Caryatides united by volutes. The grip is of quadrangular
section, and formed with four pieces of rock-crystal engraved in gold.
The pommel, which is the most admirable part of the composition, is
formed by two volutes, which hold and press between them the head of an
old Satyr, whose expression reveals his vexation; in the curves of the
volutes are two little genii. They grasp and tread on festoons of fruit,
which are gathered up at the back of the pommel by the god Vertumnus,
beneath whom, on an oval cartouche, Hercules is seen in combat with the
Nemean lion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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