Were helms painted?

[Drogo the Clueless]

Specifically I am looking at great helms and sugarloaf style helms from 1280 to about 1320. Some of the artwork I have come across depicts them in various colors. At first I thought they were just various finishes on the metal combined with some artistic liscence. However I keep seeing red helms.

Is this simply an artists taking liberties or were helms painted in this era?

[InsaneIrish]

I would say paint. Painting helmets was certainly in practice later, so why not a soon as the crusades?

[Drogo the Clueless]

It is very tempting.... a red sugar loaf with brass or steel ocullar/nasal accent? To flamboyant or actual recreation?

If I were to do such a crazy project, what method of painting should I use? Keeping in mind, I will be using this for SCA combat and I am constantly getting whacked in the head (working on better blocking but I am a slow learner).
Powder coating, can of enamel spray paint, or try and find a period method that can stand up to some serious abuse?

[matthijs]

No such thing as too flamboyand.

I used model paint (acrylic?) for my jousting shield covered with a few layers of a hard boat lacquer. That holds up quite well.

[nathan]

I use an 'iron oxide primer' on my helms (it being an authentic pigment), it chips and scuffs on steel combat head strikes, but touch-ups take 5 min (most of that being brush cleaning).

If you have fiddly bits to deal with then i can imagine you want something more durable, thick gloss varnish is good stuff (but needs to be stripped off if you want to re-apply, hence why after finding out how much work that was I didn't bother). Gloss also matches turps varnishes for effect so are reasonably period.

I found that satin finish metal really helps the paint adhere (my helm was mirror polished when i got it, after the paint kept coming off in huge flakes, i paid attention to the application instructions and roughed up the surface), it's obvious after you have done it of course. ymmv.

HTH
N.

[earnest carruthers]

We know of later period painted helmets, viz Wallace Collection.

The period way of painting metal was to use a oil varnish medium with the pigment ground in. You end up with a thick and shiny paint. brush strokes may well remain, they certainly are prominent in the Wallace Collection items.

A period varnish is colophony melted and dissolved into linseed oil and boiled, the colophony gives it the hardness, the oil the viscosity to paint.

It can take a fair while to cure, it can be accelerated by exposing it to sunlight, but is hard wearing and of course waterproof.

The idea of matt paint as we know it is hard to achieve in a medieval context, but gloss is the way to go, shiney was a sign of richness, the use of varnish in painting was prized as a way to brighten things up.

As for whether the earlier MSS images are representing painted helms or not, that is up for a long debate.

[marcus the pale]

Well, they are not great helms, and I honestly don't know the source for the picture, but this looks like helms that have been painted. Judging from the style, it could be around the era you are looking at, maybe before. But then, as a secondary source of unknown origin, I may not be helping at all.

Anyone seen it before?



marcus

[Drogo the Clueless]

Thanks for all the input. i still have not found a direct reference to painted helms in the early 1300's. The best proof I have so far is a picture out an Osprey book. While I find Osprey to be a good starting point, I do not want to rest my entire basis on an interpretative image.

[audax]

Well, they are not great helms, and I honestly don't know the source for the picture, but this looks like helms that have been painted. Judging from the style, it could be around the era you are looking at, maybe before. But then, as a secondary source of unknown origin, I may not be helping at all.

Anyone seen it before?



marcus

Yes, it is from a Spanish manuscript from @1200. I believe it is in the Spanish Natiional Library.

[Destichado]

Goodness, of course they were painted. Unless you think that all those different colors in the Maciejowski Bible and the Manessa Codex were "just artistic contrivances..."

We've got examples of red, blue, green, black, and parti-color. Go wild with it.

[Drogo the Clueless]

Alright. I am convinced and I am going to start saving up the funds for a new helm. Just need to find an armourer that can help me realize my vision.

[InsaneIrish]

Alright. I am convinced and I am going to start saving up the funds for a new helm. Just need to find an armourer that can help me realize my vision.

Armour Bearer is turning out some really nice stuff at good prices. Since you plan on painting it, you can ask for it, rough from the hammer. It may cost less.

[earnest carruthers]

"Unless you think that all those different colors in the Maciejowski Bible and the Manessa Codex were "just artistic contrivances..." "


ah the old chestnut, the answer will of course be yes and no, at the same time.

The colour schemes in such documents may well be reflecting traditions in visual interpretation as much as 'representing' real life. There may well have been painted helms, but it may also be that the MSS images are not actually representing them. Similarly to the many coloured aketons/gambesons, it is nice and pretty to see a multitude of colours, but it is also expensive to dye cloth, much less dye 'cheaper' armour and bright colours make a better picture, more interesting than reality even.

We also know that much painting was formulaic, some of it realistic, other parts not so. Honnecourt was more than capable of drawing real things and systematising them, but that does not mean that he was not subject to prevailing trends in method and subject.

The truth is that images are unreliable on their own.

I strongly suspect much armour was painted, even in the crudest sense of the word to preserve the metal, ie with simple cheap colours, but going back to my opening point, that does not mean that the images are representing any particular piece.

[Ernst]

I don't want to get into an Earnest v. Ernst. There's no need. A site search will show previous discussions. The subject of painted armor has come up numerous times before on the board in various forums and the final conclusion is always one of qualifiers.

Images are representations. We know that helms were colored in the late 12th century, because Bertrand du Born sings about it. We see heraldic charges applied to the sides of conical helmets in various sources. Complex heraldic patterns appear on helms in the late 13th century on a painted Pisan chest and in the Alfonso X era T.I.1 manuscript. 14th century legal documents prohibit the covering of bascinets, or mention using roe and sheep skins for that purpose. 15th century sallets are painted with badges and Venetian celatas are covered with velvet.

The problem occurs in trying to definitively state how something shown in a manuscript illumination was effected. For example:

http://www.cuadernosmedievales.com/nume ... tolosa.jpg

The Spanish noble has a heaume with heraldic black and white zig-zags. Since other images within the same manuscript show his squire wearing a cervelliere with the same pattern, not all helmets are heraldic, and heraldic patterns are shown on other Spanish troops in the same time-frame in other sources, I believe the image accurately reflects that reality. Was this achieved by painting on metal, or covering the heaume with decorative cloth? Was the helm covered with dyed leather? Was the helm covered with leather or cloth, gessoed, and then painted? Was the helm oil blued or russeted? This is where the qualifiers come in, and no definitive knowledge does exist.
We know that a black sallet was painted with portcullis badges because it still exists. We can't say that every red sallet appearing in artwork was painted. If you document a red sugarloaf with white or yellow cross reinforce over the occular in the Bodleian Romance of Alexander, it will be difficult to prove how the red color was obtained. What method of paint was used? How was it applied, directly to the metal, or over a fabric base? What if it wasn't paint, but dyed roe-leather? Was the yello occular painted yellow, or with gilt paint? How do you know if it was brass or gilt iron?

[earnest carruthers]

"I don't want to get into an Earnest v. Ernst."
Nor I, nor is there a need.

I am convinced that painted armour existed and was more common than we give credit for, as you say it is well documented as was the technique, but the documentation is not the same (necessarily) as the images featured in the books. Things such as limited or preferred colour palettes, eg Maj bible uses about four or five colours, blue, green, orange/red and a smattering of brown, gold is added to that. So we get everyone in either, green orange, blue etc, we know that is not the sole colour range of clothing for the period.

So if that is the case we have to accept that in some MSS the limits on colours means that the humble shepherd is dressed in bright blue (unlikely) or very bright red/orange again unlikely. So we cannot say, esp in those MSS that the colour schemes are representative of much. Moreover, in that period two main colours were considered of the highest calibre in a pic, the blue and the red, hence them being so prevalent in borders and in the main elements, which further skews the picture, excuse the pun.

My suggestions for the following:

it will be difficult to prove how the red color was obtained

if paint then three options existed, in order of expense:

red ochre, red lead, vermillion - the latter in the 12/1300s was expensive


What method of paint was used?
we know of oil based paints that existed at that time (Theophilus 1170), we also know that oil varnish paints were used to seal metal in later periods, it does not seem to be an innovation.

How was it applied, directly to the metal, or over a fabric base?
If oil based, then yes directly, as per Wallce collection, easily done.

What if it wasn't paint, but dyed roe-leather?
Indeed, this is an expensive process, more so than just painting on to metal, so may well be restricted to people with cash. Leather dye recipes occur later than the period in question, IIRC Mappa Clavicula has earlier period ones.

Was the yello occular painted yellow, or with gilt paint?
Any of the above, although gilt paint in terms of ground gold is more expensive than fire gilding with leaf.

How do you know if it was brass or gilt iron?
Again, possibly both, depending on when fire/mercury gilding of metal is well documented, could even be gilt brass.

I am not at all saying no painted helms, quite the opposite, but I am saying with a clearly limited palette and traditional colour schemes in use in many MSS, then some things are apt to be painted way in excess of the thing they are suggesting. So, a humble foot soldier may well be represented in a MSS as something more than he was in real life and conversely a rich person is not necessarily represented as embellished as he should be.

Medieval oil paint is dead easy to make, you don't even have to go the whole hog, but mix a good glossy varnish with the base pigment, mix until stiff, then apply, job is a good one as they say.

[Adhemar de Chartres]

Not sure if it's painted or artist's license but there is a picture in the Maciejowski Bible (dated 1240ish) with a red barrel helm. Look center right in the back.

http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/ ... 41ra&b.gif

*shrugs*

[Jason Grimes]

HI Earnest,

Sorry to but in, but I saw a couple of things I thought I could add to.

What method of paint was used?
we know of oil based paints that existed at that time (Theophilus 1170), we also know that oil varnish paints were used to seal metal in later periods, it does not seem to be an innovation.

I have read that oil based paints didn't really become popular until the early 15th century with the work that the Van Eyke brothers were doing. Before that it was usually glue based paints until about 600 AD. Before that it was wax caustic paints, but I don't know how reliable my resource was.

Was the yello occular painted yellow, or with gilt paint?
Any of the above, although gilt paint in terms of ground gold is more expensive than fire gilding with leaf.

How do you know if it was brass or gilt iron?
Again, possibly both, depending on when fire/mercury gilding of metal is well documented, could even be gilt brass.

Fire gilding on steel didn't start until the end of the 15th century, maybe the 1480's. Although fire gilding copper alloys is very ancient and would have been available in the 12th and 13th centuries. Fire gilding copper alloy armour was popular for a very long time, even up to the 17th century. One example I can think of is the gilded copper alloy gauntlets that are part of the funerary display for the Black Prince.

[earnest carruthers]

"Sorry to but in, but I saw a couple of things I thought I could add to. "

No need to be sorry, that is why we are here, but in as much as you like mate


"I have read that oil based paints didn't really become popular until the early 15th century with the work that the Van Eyke brothers were doing. ":

Oil based paints pre-date the Van Eycks by some hundreds of years, it is a bit of a long held art history myth that the Van Eycks were the grandads of oil painting.

Theophilus, writing in the 12th century has a clear recipe for oil based paints, to paint wood as it happens.

The Strasbourg Manuscript (painting treatise) has oil recipes and that is dated before the van Eycks's time.

Cennini, who some date as late 14thc, very early 15th c latest, also has a few oil based recipes.

Paint media varied according to the surface needed, again well before and after the Van eycks we have:

glue - distemper
fresco, true and secco
egg
encaustic


re fire gilding, again, Theophilus has a section on amalgam gilding, although I can't recall off hand, have given away my copy, if it was gilding onto iron or non-ferrous metals.

As you say, there are earlier references to gilding on non-ferrous metals, eg Pliny.

"One example I can think of is the gilded copper alloy gauntlets that are part of the funerary display for the Black Prince."

Indeed, also the French Kings helmet that was found down a well, an effort had been made by thieves to recover the fire gilded gold off the copper alloy helmet.

I suspect that copper or brass etc are cheaper to use for funerary items and probably quicker to work, although that is stepping out of my province a fair bit.

fascinating subject.

[Jason Grimes]

Oil based paints pre-date the Van Eycks by some hundreds of years, it is a bit of a long held art history myth that the Van Eycks were the grandads of oil painting.

Thanks, I wasn't too sure when the oil based paints came about.

re fire gilding, again, Theophilus has a section on amalgam gilding, although I can't recall off hand, have given away my copy, if it was gilding onto iron or non-ferrous metals.

As you say, there are earlier references to gilding on non-ferrous metals, eg Pliny.

"One example I can think of is the gilded copper alloy gauntlets that are part of the funerary display for the Black Prince."

Indeed, also the French Kings helmet that was found down a well, an effort had been made by thieves to recover the fire gilded gold off the copper alloy helmet.

I suspect that copper or brass etc are cheaper to use for funerary items and probably quicker to work, although that is stepping out of my province a fair bit.

fascinating subject.

It is, very fascinating. I have been doing a fair bit of research on fire gilding and I have some confidence in saying that there was no gilding of ferrous metals before the end of the 15th century. Although I know you should never say never. I don't have my books with me right now so I'm just going by memory. I did find some examples of gilded armour previous to the mid 15th century. There is a spangen helm that dates to the 11th or 12th centuries that is gilded. However it was gilded by covering the iron plates with thin copper plates and then fire gilding the copper. The earliest ferrous armour that I have been able to find that was fire gilded is two sallets. The first sallet is the famous one with the pom on top and the full face visor (c. 1490's). The other one was made by Lorenze Helmschmied (I think) and was etched all over and silvered with silver amalgam (also c. 1490's). There is one example that I'm very interested in, is one of the bascinets in Churburg that has, what looks to me from the pictures, gilded visor pivots. It would be fascinating to see if that is an example of ferrous fire gilding, non-ferrous fire gilding, or just highly polished plain brass.

[Ernst]

I am not certain that the evidence points toward oil-based paints for the period requested by Drogo, 1280-1320. The 1322 regulation cited by ffoulkes forbids the covering of helmets as done previously. Randall Storey has documentation of covering helmets with white leather. (IIRC the cost of covering was greater than the original costs of the bascinets. I'll have to dig that reference out.) If helmets had been previously covered with a thin leather, and then painted, an egg based tempera would work, as this was what tended to be used on parchment. Tempera can appear flat or gloss (glaired). Of course, helms could have been painted with glossy oil-based paints, and/or covered with leather without paint.

Again, we're left with speculation.

[earnest carruthers]

"I am not certain that the evidence points toward oil-based paints for the period requested by Drogo, 1280-1320"

Theophilus? predates that period a fair bit, I might have t start digging up some treatises of that period though, woopee another project.

"Again, we're left with speculation."

Sure, but it is intelligent speculation rather than a plucked out the air guess, there is information, albeit sketchy or unassembled, so it is merely murky, not pitch black

[Ernst]

Since I don't own a cheap Dover reprint of Theophilus's writings on diverse arts, I am left with a question. Does the monk begin with something akin to, "To make oil paint, do these things" or, does he suggest, "To make a paint suitable for painting on panel or to illustrate books", or a direct, "To paint metal..."? It is possible that making an oil-based paint was known quite some time before the idea of applying it to armor occurred. After all, men knew how to sew canvas over wood long before they made aeroplanes using the technique.

Please educate me on this matter.

[earnest carruthers]

He mentions oil paint to paint wooden doors, specifically in red, ochre.

No, he does not mention painting metal, by any means, but the technique of applying oil paint, was noted.

His treatise covers:

painting
glass work
metalwork - including a vibrating engraving machine for metal.

all with very well founded principles, except for the urine of the red headed boy to temper metal.

In terms of what was painted, we know from documentation that pretty much everything, from buildings, to cloth, to statuary and furniture etc.

To make a possible leap from the above to a metal lid is not IMHO that great.

As you rightly noted, painting is much cheaper than leathering and subsequent dyeing or painting on to it, on top of the process being lengthier than a simple coating of a preserving paint.


"After all, men knew how to sew canvas over wood long before they made aeroplanes using the technique. "

Rather a large leap from sewing canvas to shields to aerodynamics I think.

I would posit that they knew how to paint before they learned to sew even, again a much more basic process than those required to harvest, prepare, spin and weave cloth.

Point is, we are not walking around in the dark, we have room to make sensible educated proposals, including other options for the covering of metal, not excluding them.

What is certainly the case in later treatises is that there is little proscription on what can be done, it is a case of doing it and according to cost and availability.

Much of our reenactment is speculative to varying degrees, but the emphasis for some of us is interpretation on what we know, and trying out our theories with some sort of rationale, hence me not relying on MSS as a first stop for evidence, it is not enough to merely emulate an image in a picture, that gives us very little to go on, other than the eye of the painter of said artist.

edit

Just had a look at a copy of the Mappae clavicula, re fire gilding iron.

"Iron is also gilded the same way, but first it should be treated with alum....."

it refers to the gold amalgam, left melted into mercury then applied to copper or brass, then driven off by heat.

Linseed oil, medium

It is the standard linseed oil and resin mix, which is a varnish paint medium in later eras, but not yet found one in the MC for paint, as a varnish to protect painted works it is well described.

Edit 2
The MC also has a range of coloured varnishes for application to metal, ie tin, to make a false gold., this recipe and ones like it go right through to the late middle ages and beyond.

Given the notion that iron was [oil] gilded, ie decorated, the leap from the possibility from gilding to varnish based paints is even smaller.

The original Mappae was an 8thc document, but rewritten and transcribed down the centuries, with undoubted amendments. There are clear similarities between Theophilus (later) and the MCs.

What the MC is more about is composition of chemicals and mixtures rather than application, this is not just in the case of painting but the whole range of creative activities. It is not a treatise on how to apply something so much as a treatise on how things are made or composed.


I will have a gander at Eraclius to see if he sheds any more light.

[Ernst]

Thanks earnest.

I've been reviewing the whole issue of leather-covered plate. The example noted by Randall Storey in his thesis notes that in 1344 royal clerks purchased 44 bascinets for 16d each, and payed to have them covered in white leather for 10d each. Clearly, men were ready to pay substantially for decoration. The 1322 London regulation cited by ffoulkes bans the selling of pre-covered bascinets, demanding that they be sold plain and ungarnished as was previously done.

This leaves me questioning whether covering in leather was a new practice, or whether selling pre-covered bascinets was new? It is questionable if the practice of covering heaumes can be deduced from the covering of bascinets as well. You have made a reasonable case for using an oil/lacquer paint directly to metal, a process that was known to have been used in later centuries. I still wonder whether a flat egg paint could have been used rather than the gloss oil?

[earnest carruthers]

Pleasure mate, this thread has made me do some rethinking.

As for painting leather, well, one of the MC recipes, it has a lot of recipes for dyeing leather, is to make a broth using vermillion and a red stain, the vermillion is a pigment, so this, I imagine augments the stain.

Size, animal glue is good for painting leather, a later recipe calls for woad powder to be painted on a skin then oiled up. I have tried this and I see why, the woad powder is no longer reactive, so it cannot dye the skin, but is used as a pigment instead.

As for egg, I don't see why not, the only down side to it is its length of time to chemically set and its relative inflexibility once set, but it is a very versatile and long lasting medium (the yolks).

Egg yolk gives a matt low-shine lustre, variously left unvarnished or varnished according to period and locale.

But varnishing was common, numerous recipes for shiny varnishes exist, way in excess of the MC recipes, some are rather complicated but have the same end, to produce a shine.

Animal size gives a flat matt appearance, a really good cheap glue based medium that is great for walls, cloth and leather, left un-sealed or sealed, depending on use of item, it can sit rather dull and a mixture of glue/egg brings up the colour.

If I were painting leather I would certainly favour the size or the egg for practicability and quickness of drying. Egg yolk is touch dry in seconds but as mentioned chemically dry only after many weeks.

Am happy to send you a pm of my source material so you can cast another eye over it as you see fit, a different view would be welcome.

[Egfroth]

The liber ad honorem augusti of c.1195 shows what look very much like painted helmets - see in particular Siege of Napels. Henry VI and his knights and Capture of the disguised Richard the Lionheart for helmets that mirror the blazons of the knights wearing them.

[Cian of Storvik]

Illuminations are nice, but here is a helmet from a little later then the period the originator was looking for that is painted (the cross is not brasswork, it's painted on). Now the question remains, is it the original paint job or something done later to make it look spiffy on someone's mantle?
I've seen comments that it's thought that the mail drape was added much later then the helm's original fabrication. So maybe the paint is too? But if it's original, then it's solid proof of helms being painted.
-Cian

[earnest carruthers]

Cian, nice pic by the way.

That brasswork is oil gilded, ie gold over an oil varnish mordant, with what is possibly a varnish over layer.

Even if it was not orginal, the technique and style are fine, so at best an original, at worst a very good rendition in style.

[Ernst]

Illuminations are nice, but here is a helmet from a little later then the period the originator was looking for that is painted (the cross is not brasswork, it's painted on). Now the question remains, is it the original paint job or something done later to make it look spiffy on someone's mantle?
I've seen comments that it's thought that the mail drape was added much later then the helm's original fabrication. So maybe the paint is too? But if it's original, then it's solid proof of helms being painted.
-Cian

"If it's original..." The Kornburg helm has been much discussed on the Archive. It seems the helm was 'restored', or modified in the 17th century for funerary use. The question becomes difficult. The paint could be original or it could be from the 17th century. If it is 17th century paint, they may have overpainted traces of original paint to "restore" the helms appearance, or they may have taken inspiration from manuscript illuminations and added the paint to mimic what they though it should have looked like. The same holds true for the "aventail". The antiquarians might have added a 15th century mail standard to a 14th century helm because they didn't understand mail coifs under helmets...or it might be original. Since it seems probable the aventail was added, the same would seem likely for the paint, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

[warc]

I've seen some pretty neat examples of painted sallets in museums and over the internet. They're a little later than the time frame in question but I think there is historical precedence there. I have also seen painted great helms in period artwork, though I suppose you have to take those kinds of things with a grain of salt. I imagine due to the resiliency and imagination of the human mind that many individuals decorated or painted their helms.