Composed Armor

Julian Arrechia|Raymond Bartel

ca. 1450–60 and later, restored and composed in the 1920s · Steel, copper alloy (latten), leather · Arms and Armor

This armor was restored and assembled into this configuration in the 1920s. Several rare pieces of it cam from a large find of medieval armor discovered in 1840 in the ruins of the fortress of Chalcis, on the Greek island of Euboea (then a Venetian colony called Negroponte). The fortress had been captured and destroyed by the Turks in 1470. Now divided largely between the Ethnological Museum, Athens, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chalcis hoard contains many rare and unusual elements of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century armor. Of particular importance are the variety of headpieces and the many fragments of brigandines (armor for the torso constructed of small plates riveted to layers of fabric), some of which retain portions of their original velvet covering. The Chalcis armor provides a unique picture of the armament used in the Aegean, one of the easternmost military outposts of the Venetian empire.

Artist

Julian Arrechia|Raymond Bartel

Date

ca. 1450–60 and later, restored and composed in the 1920s

Medium

Steel, copper alloy (latten), leather

Culture

Italian

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, Bequest of Bashford Dean, 1928