… for a horse appeared to them with a terrible rider.
Second Maccabees 3:25
Military museums in Europe. Last time we looked at dummies of riders in armor and on horseback, exhibited in various museums. And, probably, the history of each such "exhibit" (if you delve into it, of course!) Will be very interesting. The only trouble is that there is no time to dig, and sometimes there is simply no information on the exhibit. Not all armor is even weighed and measured, and the thickness of the metal is not determined. But there are also pleasant exceptions. For example, the Vienna Imperial Armory (or Arsenal), with the collections of which we have already familiarized ourselves in some way. However, they are so extensive that you can talk about them for a long time. In addition, the Arsenal compares favorably with other museums in that there are a lot of horse figures in it. It is hardly an exaggeration to think that there are more of them here than in all the others combined, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York! But, in addition to horses in the arsenal itself, there are also horses with riders in the Ambras castle, its branch.
It is clear that mainly equestrian armor of the 16th - 17th centuries has survived to this day, because then they began to take care of them for real, that is, catalog and store them correctly. And nevertheless, even so late, in our opinion, the armor is insanely interesting, both from the point of view of history and its artistic features.
We will start, perhaps, with this armor, which is interesting primarily because it is made in the antique style, the fashion for which spread in Europe under the influence of the ideas of the Renaissance. This is a complex knightly set for a rider and his horse, and very curious in that it can be used both as a ceremonial and tournament for an equestrian duel (there is a grand guard for the left shoulder), and also for a foot tournament. The shield (visible from the back of the saddle) was used for representative rides and parades. The oval medallion of the shield depicts the handing over of the keys to the city of Babylon to Alexander the Great. This scene is surrounded by four medallions depicting Artemis of Ephesus.
The owner of the armor was Duke Alessandro (Alexander) Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1545-1592), and this is confirmed by the image of Artemis of Ephesus, the famous Roman copy of which was an adornment of the antique collection of the Duke of Farnese. After the death of don Juan of Austria in 1578, it was Alessandro Farnese, the son of the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V, who became governor and supreme commander of the Spanish troops in the Netherlands. In the same year, Archduke Ferdinand tried to buy armor and a portrait from him for his famous "arsenal of heroes", and, apparently, this deal was successfully completed. The set was made in 1575 by the Milanese craftsman Lucio Piccinino. At the same time, forging, bluing, polishing, gilding, silvering, inlaid with gold and silver were used for its manufacture, and their lining was made of leather, silk and velvet.
This armor was intended "both for the field and for the tournament" and was richly decorated. It was made in 1526. It had blue bluing with gilding, as well as engraved mythical creatures, volutes and flowers. The side bulges of the horse bib adorn the lions' faces. The set is interesting in that even the front bow of the saddle is grooved. The cuirass consists of two parts, which is not typical for this time. Moreover, the upper part is corrugated, and the lower one is smooth. Grangarda with a high shield on the left is removable, as well as a sharp-nosed buff - a forehead. Attention is also drawn to the cap made of criss-crossing metal strips. This design does not play any special protective role, but it looks impressive as a tribute to tradition. The set was located in the Ambras castle, where it was exhibited in the “hall of armor of heroes”, where it took the place of the armor of King Ruprecht I (1352-1410). Today it is exhibited at the Vienna Arsenal in hall №3. Materials: corrugated metal, brass, gold casting, leather.
Original chain mail armor for the rider and his horse, made of two types of rings: iron and yellowish brass. These rings are woven into a pattern and form the heraldic symbols of the Archduchy of Austria. The shoulder pads and open helmet of the bourguignot are decorated in the form of the faces of fantastic animals, just like the chanted horse forehead chanfron. The knee pads are made in the shape of a lion's head. Moreover, it is funny that the fantastic head of the chanfron eats a leaf, but this is not a leaf of an ordinary plant. The head devours an acanthus leaf, symbolizing antiquity, which only emphasizes the ancient character of this supposedly "Roman armor" - a typical technique of the Mannerist era of the 16th - first third of the 17th century.
Armor inspired by antiquity played an important role in the court life of the 16th century, as can be seen from the large amount of this equipment at the disposal of Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol. The fact is that armor, like clothing, has been influenced by fashion. And fashion in the second half of the 16th century changed a lot. Scenes from mythology have become fashionable in the design of armor. Since accounts for this armor have survived, we not only know well about their price of 2,400, but we also know which craftsmen worked on this work of art. By themselves, if we abstract from their high artistic merit, this "armor" is nothing more than the armor of a high-ranking cavalry officer who had a mace as a sign of military commander (tucked into the saddle), a sword, and on the left under the saddle there was also a "panzerstecher" (sword-konchar), which served to pierce enemy armor. And it was also used as a spear against the infantry, in order to confidently reach those who fell to the ground. The bourguignot type helmet is decorated with a dragon figurine with serrated wings. Long-sleeved chain mail and plate gloves are worn under the cuirass. The large round shield is divided into three zones by two concentric circles. In the center there is a point on a rosette of leaves. In the middle zone there are four oval medallions, inside which are depicted Judith and Holofernes, David and Goliath, Samson and Delil, Hercules and Kakusa. Along the outer edge are "trophies" and medallions depicting Marcus Curtius, sleeping Hercules, Manlius Torquatus and Gaul, as well as the scene of Cleopatra's suicide. The headset was made around 1559. Craftsman: Giovanni Battista, nicknamed "Panzeri". The artist who painted all the figures decorating the armor is Marco Antonio Fava. Materials: hammered iron with blue burnishing, polishing, gilding and silvering. Leather trim, light blue and black silk, red woolen fabric.
With the proliferation of firearms, a demand arose for light cavalry, with a minimum of armor. Why? Yes, simply because the same cavalry of pistoliers or reiters was very expensive for the treasury, but it was very difficult for them to kill each other. Often it was necessary to shoot from pistols literally at close range, seeing the whites of the enemy's eyes! “Both the colonels and the heads of the shooters need to know firmly what measure how to order to ignite, and what is fired in twenty fathoms, and that very thin, fearful shooting, at least worthy of ten fathoms, and a direct measure in five and three fathoms, and shoot it should be nisko, and not by air (by air) - wrote the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest in 1660, which was then a ubiquitous phenomenon. Since in those years the length of a fathom was 2, 16 m, then three fathoms is 6, 5 m. All this could be successfully done, however, and the light cavalry, only it maneuvered on the battlefield much faster than the heavy Reitar cavalry, was more maneuverable, and cost much less. Of the traditional armament, the Hungarian light cavalry, for example, retained only short chain mail, eastern (Turkish-style) bourguignot helmets, Hungarian tarch shields and rather long light spears, equally suitable for throwing and thrusting. A characteristic feature of the horse harness of Turkish and Hungarian riders is the cheleng necklace. In the Vienna Arsenal there is one such pendant in gilded silver, decorated with boar tusks, with a tassel of six yaks. But … they also used women's hair for this decoration, especially hair cut from the heads of European blondes!
It is believed that this is nothing more than a sample of the equipment of the Hungarian hussar, made by order of the emperor for the 1557 carnival in Prague. On it, Archduke Ferdinand II organized a tournament in which one party was dressed in the costumes of Christian knights and Hungarians, and the other - the Moors and Turks. The fact that Christian warriors used jewelry of Turkish origin (the same cheleng, for example) is not surprising, since it was a time when it was not only fashionable to carry the weapons of such an enemy as the Turks, including horse jewelry, but also testified to considerable courage. and the military skill of their owner, since they could only be obtained as a trophy.
With such "armor" a specific shield, called "Hungarian", was used. One such shield, called "Constance", was made for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand II to Anna Caterina Gonzaga in 1582. He is currently in the arsenal storehouse. It is known that it was made in Innsbruck. Wooden shield with metal fittings, jewelry made of silver threads, gold leaf, parrot feathers. The drawing was done in watercolors. Inside - leather straps.
Naturally, purely knightly armor in the 16th century more and more acquired the functions of representative "clothing", that is, they were used on the battlefield, but mainly commanders, and therefore they were also richly decorated. Then - the functions of court clothes, demonstration of their power through the demonstration of expensive and "modern" armor, and, finally, armor for participation in tournaments. This is why it was during this era that headsets became so popular. It turned out that even an expensive headset was generally cheaper than, say, five separate sets of armor.
And it so happened that in 1571, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria was to marry the Bavarian princess Maria. This marriage, which represented a kind of union of the two Catholic powers in southern Germany against the Protestant German princes, was very important to the Austrian court. No costs were considered excessive. The main thing was to pay tribute to this event, since it meant the rallying of the forces of the counter-reformation. Therefore, one should not be surprised that a whole series of ceremonial armor was created for the emperor and princes, especially for this event. The festivities and tournaments were to take place over several days. First they were to take place in Vienna, and then in Graz. In general, Maximilian II already had a headset made by the master Wolfgang Grosschedel (1517-1562, Landshut) for the planned tournaments. This headset consisted of twelve different parts, which could be easily converted according to the "modular principle" into combat, tournament and dress suits. However, by the time of the wedding, this typeface was already outdated. And then the emperor ordered Wolfgang's son Franz to turn this armored set … into four different suits of armor! On the left in the photo is a combat armor for fighting on spears, the next tournament armor with a grand guard for the left side of the chest and reinforced armor for the arm. The next armor is the three-quarter armor of the spearman. Finally, the very last armor on the right is tournament armor with a bell skirt for foot combat.
The set of armor was named "Rose Petal" because Franz Grosschedel used the image of a rose to decorate it. The workshop was very famous, the Grosschedel dynasty worked mainly for the demanding Madrid court, the Spanish king Philip II, as well as for the Austrian court of the Habsburgs, as well as for the Wittelsbach court in Bavaria and the Elector of Saxony.
The armor is in hall 7. Belonged to Archduke Ferdinand II, son of Ferdinand I (1529-1595) Materials: polished iron, engraved with gilded and blackened ribbons, brass. Lining: leather, velvet
Three-quarter armor appeared already at the beginning of the 16th century as a response to the proliferation of firearms among horsemen. The legs below the knees were now protected by boots made of tough leather. On the cuirass, the lance hook was most often absent. And even if a cuirass from old armor was used, then it was simply removed, leaving holes from the screws. This armor appeared around 1520 as a lighter type of horseman's armor, and in which a bourguignot helmet was worn over a closed helmet. Very often they were worn by the commanders of the infantry, who gave their commands while sitting on horseback, but at the same time - this light equipment allowed them, if necessary, to lead their soldiers on foot. Konrad von Bemelberg was one of the most famous commanders of the Landsknechts of Emperor Charles V. The design of the cuirass of the armor is interesting. It depicts a landsknecht on the right, kneeling in prayer, and it is quite possible that this is Bemelberg himself, and on the left is the crucified Christ, to whom the kneeling turns with prayer.
Since in such armor one had to fight not only on horseback, but also on foot, they are equipped with a metal codpiece - a piece of armor that some visitors to our site are very interested in. Its history is as follows: in the 15th century, chain mail legguards had a special overlap in front, called latz, but then the armor did not have a codpiece, since the rider sat in a saddle bound with metal, and everything that protruded between his legs was good and protected! The edges of the legguards formed a cutout for a more comfortable sitting in the saddle. At the beginning of the 16th century, there was still a "pouch" of chain mail inside the cutout, and a fully developed metal codpiece appeared around 1520. At this time, it looked like an iron cap, connected to the cuirass with rivets or ribbons. The armor is in hall number 3. Craftsman: Wolfgang Grosschedel (1517-1562, Landshut). The etching was done by Ambrosius Gemlich (1527-1542, Munich and Landshut). Helmet by Valentin Siebenburger (1531-1564). Material: polished iron with partial etching, gilding and blackening of recesses.
