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pictures of 16th century legs?
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:20 am
by Kristoffer
Anyone who can point me to some pictures of some nice 16th century legs? Inside views would be awesome..
Re: pictures of 16th century legs?
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:15 am
by wcallen
Mine aren't nice, but they are legs and they include lots of angles:
http://www.allenantiques.com/Armour-Leg ... ction.html
Wade
Re: pictures of 16th century legs?
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:47 am
by Kristoffer
I find it interesting that the shape of the kneecap varies so much between different legs. I have shapes "in my head" that i think look good and then things that look bad. A lot of the shapes i think look wrong seems to have been done. Perhaps this is because most of my experience comes from museum pieces that are usually for royalties and such, so they are really exclusive. I aim to do knees very deep, aiming for, not quite, but close to a half sphere. The flatter ones look wrong but I guess that was common among cheaper armour, pretty much like its done today.
Leg armour is something that doesn't seem to have changed much trough the centuries if you ignore the fashion changes.
Just some reflections, now lets see some more pics
Re: pictures of 16th century legs?
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:21 am
by wcallen
I think that there is more variety than may immediately be obvious because a lot of the changes are subtle. The general concept, cuisse, lame(s), cop with wing, lame(s) then terminal plate is basically static. The details change within that.
Take a look at knees when they are bent. I posted images of mine, and there are others in books like L'Arte, Mantova, Lombarde and a few others. There isn't any hard and fast rule, but it appears that they generally tried to make the leg look good when it was bent. This means that you can't make the cop too flat and you can't make it too deep. Too flat and the bent leg looks silly because it is flat at the knee, too deep and it looks like a pimple is bulging from the knee.
So "deeper" isn't necessarily "better" after a certain point.
That was another of the little lessons in the Texas Hammerfest.
Pick a leg or 2 from the same period. Stare at them very closely. One where you can get an image bent may help a lot. Sketch it, and sketch it bent and straight. Then you will have an idea of the geometry involved.
Wade