The Armour Archive

Quick question.

Looking at the overall proportions of this breastplate/corazzina, it seems to me that the whole thing is very long, and would cover well beyond the natural waistline, as seen in normal XIVth century globose breastplates.
Also, the cutouts for the arms seem to be pretty small. Any thoughts?

Monastero di San Lazzaro degli Armeni, S. Lazzaro 1380-1400

Goll's ref_arm_3734

That is (or used to be) a cloth covered globose. The way the pictures are taken (close and at an angle) is skewing the proportions so it is hard to say what they really are.

If better photos are available it would be easier to judge it. If it fails the "can it be worn" or "will it work" then we would have to say fake.

But without better pictures it is hard to say.

I don't think it's so much that the waist is low, so much as that the armpits are high. That, combined with the part where the shoulders of the breast don't rise much above the level of the hollow of the throat combine to make the whole thing look a bit big and round.


Also, like XT said, the camera is way to close to give a good impression of the object. If it were photographed from a more reasonable distance, I think it would look a lot less round.

That said, I believe its' a real one, and it would be fun to try building it to see how it worked.


Mac