Design for the Breastplate of a Suit of Armor

Etienne Delaune

ca. 1576 · Pen and brown ink with light blue wash · Robert Lehman Collection

This study is a copy (in reverse) of a model drawing (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) by Étienne Delaune for the right front breastplate of the Emperor Harness, a suit of parade armor made for King Henry II of France (r. 1547-59) about 1555 (on view in the Arms and Armor Gallery 374, 39.121a-n). Trained as a goldsmith, Delaune produced designs for prints, book illustrations, coins, medals, jewelry, and armor, serving as an engraver to Henry II in the Royal Mint. The ornamental design, with animals and figures intertwined among foliate motifs recalls the School of Fontainebleau. Such a study was intended to serve as a life-size model for armorers and goldsmiths who executed elaborate harnesses. The Lehman sheet is similar in style to a group of armorial drawings made in Augsburg in the late sixteenth century.

Artist

Etienne Delaune

Date

ca. 1576

Medium

Pen and brown ink with light blue wash

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975