Gilt or bronzed suits?

Gerhard von Liebau · Post by **Gerhard von Liebau** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:13 am

Hey folks,

I'm curious as to whether anyone has examples of completely gilt or bronzed suits of armour from between the early 15th and late 16th centuries. I visited Vienna last week, and saw one tournament suit dated to around 1510 that was bronzed, apparently. I've heard tell of other suits, but have never seen any in photographs or the like. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Cheers!

-Gerhard-

(p.s. I'll get lots of photos from Vienna up sometime soon.)

Alcyoneus · Post by **Alcyoneus** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:00 pm

Do you mean like this? ;-)

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/v ... 131.1,%202

Gerhard von Liebau · Post by **Gerhard von Liebau** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:06 pm

Thanks, Alcy. Very much like what I was after! I'm curious, more specifically, whether or not such suits were done without additional etching or embossing? The gilding on the suit you posted is covered in etching, and is very extravagant. Are there further examples without the detailing, but that just look gold due to bronzing or gilding? I'll post the image of the tournament suit I saw to give an example.

Thanks again!

-Gregory-

[img]http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/download.php?id=5154[/img]

Archie Zietman · Post by **Archie Zietman** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:12 pm

Greg, have you any info about that harness? That's for foot combat, yes?

Gerhard von Liebau · Post by **Gerhard von Liebau** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:44 pm

Indeed, it is for tournament combat on foot. I do not recall who this particular suit belonged to, or an exact date. The suit next to it was the more familiar Milanese tonlet harness of the Grand Chamberlain of Burgundy. Justin took the only picture of that one (since I've got some in books) so I'll refrain from posting for now. You can probably find it online if you search the name. They are dated to the late 15th or very early 16th century.

-Gregory-

Archie Zietman · Post by **Archie Zietman** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 6:20 pm

It looks similar to Henry the 8th's foot combat harness from the mid-late 16th century Edit: 1520 or thereabouts and it is very similar to the armour for Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, 1547.

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:06 pm

If i'm not misstaken, that suit was made for Maximillian I in about 1508, for foot combat. Gilded suits like this were popular in the early 16th century.

Gerhard von Liebau · Post by **Gerhard von Liebau** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:06 pm

Archie,

I'm assuming you're referring to Henry VIII's tonlet harness that was made for his use at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, held in 1520. It does resemble that, but the build is a bit larger on both of these particular harnesses. In 1520, Henry was a bit slimmer than these fellows. I personally prefer his enclosed suit that was replaced by the one you've mentioned. For some reason he didn't like the articulated arse, I suppose! :lol:

Jason,

Indeed, that could well be. It's very likely it belonged to him, considering such a large percent of the armour in the museum was his! I was unable to retain much of the information on the displays, considering I couldn't read german in the first place. I could only get names and dates from them, and definitely didn't remember all of it!

Cheers!

-Gregory-

Destichado · Post by **Destichado** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:44 pm

Am I the only one that thinks it's ugly???

I mean, gilding is nice, and the helmet is well made, but the rest is so PLAIN.
The shaping is not particularly well defined, the joints look old... is this what an emperor's junk-around armor looks like? 0_o

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:44 pm

Well I don't know about that. :wink:

I do know that Maximillian didn't like foot combat as much as he liked the joust. That may have had something to do with it. Henry VIII was just the opposite and like foot combat more then the joust.

Justin Livio Guidi · Post by **Justin Livio Guidi** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:08 pm

Destichado wrote:Am I the only one that thinks it's ugly???

I mean, gilding is nice, and the helmet is well made, but the rest is so PLAIN.
The shaping is not particularly well defined, the joints look old... is this what an emperor's junk-around armor looks like? 0_o

I suppose it all depends on how you view it. Some might think that a Milanese style is "so very plain" yet others like the flowing, smooth lines that it has and prefer it over some of the more beautiful flute or etch work. And as for the gilding, because of the picture qualtity - due to the fact they don't allow flash pictures to be taken there, the color doesn't come out quite right. It was much better in person.
And you say it looks old... well, it is in a museum. :wink:

-Justin