Close-Helmet for the Field

Unknown

ca. 1560–70 · Steel, gold · Arms and Armor

In the 1560s it became fashionable in Italy to cover an armor with multiple narrow bands of foliate ornament, a practice carried to the extreme in this example. The presence of a large reinforcing brow plate on a close-helmet of this date is highly unusual, but it is found on similarly decorated armors made for the court of Ferrara. (The front collar lames are missing.)

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1560–70

Medium

Steel, gold

Culture

Italian

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Gift of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1937