Shield for the Field or Tournament (Targe)

Unknown

ca. 1450–1500 · Wood, leather, silver, gesso, polychromy, iron · Arms and Armor

The surface of the shield is painted with delicate foliate scrolls in silver leaf (now tarnished) on a black ground. During its working life, the shield was painted a second time with two shields bearing the arms of the Nuremberg patrician families Ketzel (on a black ground, a silver monkey holding a gold ball) and Igelbrecht (on a silver ground, a black hedgehog with three gold apples stuck on its spine). The arms may have been added in the late fifteenth century by the Ketzel family as a memorial to Heinrich Ketzel the Elder (died 1438), a citizen of Nuremberg by 1435–36, and his wife Anna Igelbrecht, who married in 1391.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1450–1500

Medium

Wood, leather, silver, gesso, polychromy, iron

Culture

German

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Florence Blumenthal, 1925