The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the "Renaissance."Clephan, R. Coltman (Robert Coltman)
History
The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the "Renaissance."
Clephan, R. Coltman (Robert Coltman)
Armor; Weapons
There is a chastely enriched harness in the Kriegswaffen-Saal at
Dresden attributed to Wilhelm von Worms. A drawing is given in Fig.
32 of the cuirass and tassets. On the left side of the breastplate is
engraved a figure of a knight kneeling before the crucified Christ on
the cross. The top of the breastplate is tastefully ornamented with
a shield, with foliations on either side. This example is specially
valuable, as it bears the date of make--1539.
An example in black and white may be seen at Berlin, the bright spaces
being engraved. The breastplate is adorned with an engraved figure of
Christ on the cross, and the gorget bears the legend: SOLVS SPES MEA
CHRISTVS. A rondelle protects the right armpit. The left pauldron is a
restoration. The suit dates about 1570.
There is a remarkable harness at Berlin, dating from about the
middle of the sixteenth century. The cuirass, taces, and tassets
are banded with an ornamentation of chevrons, which are bright and
black alternately. Each row is defined with lines of brass, probably
originally gilded. The cuisses are bright on the upper portions, which
are enriched alternately with piping and small overlapping plates like
shillings; the lower portions are black, and so also are the jambs.
The sollerets are small and “bear-paw,” the extremities adorned with
alternate bright and black flutings; the pauldrons are treated in the
same manner. The rerebraces are ornamented with thick, circular coils
to resemble puffs; there are no coudières, but the joint is rendered
mobile by eleven narrow lames. There is a boy’s harness of similar
make at Vienna, by Hans Seusenhofer, dating about 1511. This suit is
obviously a copy of the civil dress of the time.
SUIT AT ALNWICK CASTLE.
This is a very chaste and elegant Italian suit (Fig. 33), dating
from the last quarter of the sixteenth century. It is ornamented in
the banded Italian style; the ground of repoussé work, with its rich
minute foliations in low relief, is gilded, while the rest of the steel
remains bright. The general style of the ornamentation is alternate
chevrons of bright steel and minute repoussé work. The decorative
work on the pauldrons and genouillières is, however, much bolder in
character than on the rest of the armour. A very similar style of
ornamentation may be seen on a tilting suit given in Skelton, vol.
i., Plate VIII., and dated by him 1543. The Alnwick harness is freely
studded with brass-headed rivets which have been gilded.
The helmet is in four pieces, and highly characteristic of the Italian
school of the period.
The gorget is comparatively modern, but conveys the idea that it was
copied from the original piece owing to dilapidation, and but for the
ornamentation it would pass even with close observers when the suit is
set up.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Suit at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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