The coudes display the four figures of the Cardinal Virtues. Beautiful emblematic groups and figures adorn the genouillères and demi-jambs. The tassets are detachable half-way up the thigh. The gauntlets correspond in decoration and elegance with the rest of this magnificent suit. The armour of Philip III. belongs to the period of the decadence of the armourer’s craft. The final victory of the firearm in the long struggle between attack and defence was now very generally recognised, and complete suits of armour were worn mainly for display. Tilting, too, was going rapidly out of fashion. By the middle of the seventeenth century the burgonet, cuirass, and tassets were well-nigh the only pieces of armour worn in the field. The suit B1 to B3 (plates 82 _et seq._) presented to Philip III. when Prince, at the age of _seven_, by his brother-in-law, Carlo Emmanuele, Duke of Savoy, is obviously one of the harnesses intended for ornament, and not defence. It is a beautiful example of Italian art, including twelve pieces, worked in gilded iron, and decorated with innumerable figures, masks, &c., in the low relief contained in cartouches, scrolls, and bands--all embossed and damascened. There is no leg-armour attached to the suit, and the gauntlets have disappeared. The helmet, or _celada de engole_, has a large mask on the visor, and at the sides Victory and Fame; on the outside part of the collar, Strength and Prudence, and on the other, the Ducal Crown; on the breastplate the figure of Fortuna, accompanied by two winged genii, with a phylactery on which is the word SPANIA; and in different places, Justice, Temperance, and various small symbolic figures, which may also be seen on the backplate, the pauldrons, and the armlets. It bears no armourer’s mark. B2. Infantry morion, forged in one piece, with similar decoration to the preceding; a mask, in front on the forehead figures representing Abundance and Prosperity, grotesques, and trophies. B3. Shield, for combat on foot. A medallion covers the centre, on which are represented Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars destroying the Moors; around are four Ephesian Dianas on _estipites_ (pedestals in the form of inverted pyramids), and between them an equal number of panels with warlike and mythological subjects: the decoration of the groundwork is completed by other subjects similar to those of the preceding pieces. Diameter 0.39. The half-suit B4-5 (plate 84), also presented to the successor of Philip II. in his childhood, is believed to be the work of Lucio Picinino. The decoration is very beautiful and less profuse than in the preceding example. On the wide middle band of the breastplate may be seen a mask upheld by two nude figures, the goddess Pallas, satyrs, &c. Festoons with masks extend from band to band. The pauldrons bear grotesque masks, and the coudes symbolical figures.