Gathering the weapons after them and removing the armor from the enemies …
Second Book of Maccabees 8:27)
Military museums in Europe. We continue to get acquainted with the collection of armor and weapons exhibited in the Vienna Imperial Arsenal, and today we will again have the armor of the "sunset era". That is, those that appeared after 1500. But this time we will get acquainted with ceremonial armor (mainly) and only partially with combat ones, those that replaced the armor of the knights. Well, the decline in the development of armor and armor craft came when they reached their maximum perfection. Here are just a little sense from this perfection. Bullets of muskets, cannonballs and buckshot left no chance of survival for the knighthood. After all, all knightly science was built around knightly weapons - and the spear and sword were considered the most important weapons in the knightly arsenal. But the five-meter peaks of the Swiss and Landsknechts turned out to be longer than the king's spears, and it was something of a fantasy to cut through them for a rider with a sword. Another thing is that it was possible to shoot at these infantrymen with pistols and arquebus. But … this tactic immediately changed all the requirements for the cavalryman. Now he could not be a virtuoso. It was enough to be able to stay in the saddle, jump across the battlefield and somehow shoot at the enemy on command. But such warriors could be recruited for a much lower fee than a squad of knights-spearmen. And if so, the knights very quickly on the battlefields were replaced again by men at arms, yes, armor could still serve, but these horsemen were no longer knights - they did not have land and castles, they did not fight at tournaments, and they had armor, like weapons, not your own. They were given all this along with a salary.
Armor by fashion
The commanders - those, yes, came from the nobility, belonged to the old feudal nobility and could afford to purchase custom-made armor. However, they also began to differ structurally from the armor of the previous time. So, already in 1550, cuirasses with separate knee-length legguards appeared. The breastplate of the same cuirass lengthened and turned into a "goose belly" (what can you do, fashion is fashion!), Although on many armor the waist at the lumbar level was preserved.
Around 1580, round thighs appeared, and all because under them they began to wear short, but rounded in shape and, in addition, tight trousers. "Armor for antiquity" appeared, with relief muscles on the cuirass, but they did not last long (although they left the memory in museums!), And disappeared already around 1590.
Iron suits
It is interesting that all in the same XVI century there was a very funny transformation of knightly armor into … ceremonial clothes of the feudal nobility. Now they began to flaunt in armor not only at tournaments, but also in palaces. At the doors of the royal chambers, a guard in armor and with round shields in their hands, which had already lost all meaning, but very beautiful, stood up, the armor became a means of capitalization, in a word, they completely lost their practical significance at that time. By the way, in the same Japan this process was delayed by exactly 100 years. The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 marked the borderline between old and new Japan, where armor became a sort of ceremonial dress for the shogun's palace.
Now let's look at a photo of this armor from the Vienna Armory, and get to know it in more detail. They were made by the Nuremberg plattner Kunz Lochner, one of the most famous craftsmen of this large German center for the production of weapons in the middle of the 16th century, and made two suits of armor with a very similar finish. One of them came to the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), the last king of Jagiellon, and is now on display at the Armory in Stockholm. Another was made for Nicholas IV, the Black Radziwill. The entire surface of the armor was decorated by an unknown engraving artist who covered it with extremely colorful ornamentation with gilding and black and red enamel. The pattern covers the armor like a carpet. This armor could serve as field, tournament and ceremonial armor at the same time, and it surpasses the richness of decoration of the armor of King Sigismund II Augustus not only in the richness of coloristic details, but also in a large number of figures. This circumstance probably reflects the real correlation of power in Poland, since Nicholas IV Radziwill, who is called the Black, was the Duke of Neswez and Olik, the prince of the empire, the great chancellor and marshal of Lithuania, the governor of Vilna, etc. That is, he was a very powerful magnate of Poland. His armor was exhibited in Ambras, but there they were often confused with the armor of Nicholas Christoph Radziwill (1549-1616), son of Nicholas IV. Parts of this armor, now in Paris and New York, were probably lost during the Napoleonic wars. Exhibited in hall number 3. Material: etched iron, leather, velvet
That is, the main function of the knight's armor has now become the main one. The lance hook disappeared on them, and even the holes for its fastening were no longer made. The armor has now become only symmetrical, since the protective asymmetry was no longer needed and, of course, the armor now began to be extremely richly decorated!
I like this kind of armor "in the faces", especially if the face is done very well. Before us is the armor of Philip II. It was commissioned by Emperor Charles V in 1544 as part of the magnificent Grand Set for his son Philip II of Spain. The armor was made by the master Desiderius Helmschmidt and the Augsburg engraver Ulrich Holzmann. The armor is very delicately decorated with wide black etched longitudinal stripes in a pattern of intertwined curls and foliage, which is accompanied by narrow stripes imposed by gold. The date "1544" is engraved on the armor. Known as the husband of Queen Mary the Catholic, daughter of Henry VIII. After his father's abdication in 1555, he succeeded him in the Netherlands and Milan, and in 1556 became king of Spain, Naples, Sicily and "both Indies". In 1580, he finally became king of Portugal. The armor is on display in the hall №3. Manufacturers: Desiderius Helmschmidt (1513-1579, Augsburg), Ulrich Holzmann (etching) (1534-1562, Augsburg). Materials and technologies: "white metal", gilding, etching, niello, brass, leather
To his right is a figure in the armor of a pistol cavalryman with a "goose chest" cuirass.
And now they competed not in who would make the best armor in terms of security, but whose armor would be richer and more elegantly decorated, in accordance with the requirements of fashion. And, of course, the decor of the armor also went a certain way and also developed.
The genesis of decor
So, in 1510-1530. the first truly ceremonial "suit armor" appeared with openwork stripes cut into them. From the point of view of protection, this is generally nonsense - to have through cuts on the armor, but on the other hand, the red or blue velvet of the under-armored camisole worn under them looked very beautifully through them. The suitably grooved armor is decorated with engraved stripes running along the grooves. In 1550, the first armor decorated with chasing was made in Augsburg. Bluing of armor comes into vogue. First bluish, on hot coals, then black when the metal is fired in hot ash, and finally brown, introduced by the Milanese armourers back in 1530.
The easiest way to turn almost any armor into ceremonial was to gilt them. Various methods were used, but the most accessible was fire gilding using mercury amalgam. The gold was dissolved in mercury, then the parts of the armor were covered with the resulting composition and heated. Gold was firmly combined with iron, but mercury vapor posed a considerable danger to those who used this method. By the way, very beautiful gilded armor was made again by the Milanese master Fijino in the 60s of the 16th century. Another method of gilding was plating: parts of the armor were heated and covered with gold or silver foil, after which they were smoothed with a special "ironer". The result was a durable "gold" coating. Moreover, in Augsburg, the masters used this method already in 1510.
Meanwhile, stripes of engraving running vertically along the armor, in 1560-1570. starting from France they become diagonal. And in Italy in 1575 vertical engraved stripes appeared, between which a continuous patterned surface was engraved. At the same time, German craftsmen came up with an interesting way of finishing: covering the burnished metal with wax and scratching a pattern over it. Then the product was soaked in vinegar and the bluing was removed from the cleaned places. The result was a light pattern on a dark blue, brown, or black background. Which was not too laborious, but beautiful.
Creations of unbridled fantasy
From a mixture of silver, copper and lead, the so-called black was made, which was first rubbed into the recesses of the armor, and then they were heated. This technology came to Europe from the East, and was used quite widely, but it was precisely in the 16th century that it began to be used less. But in the same century, and from the very beginning, in Europe, and primarily in Toledo, Florence and Milan, the inlay technique spread. It is also a very simple and seemingly accessible technology for everyone. On the surface of the armor, grooves are made in the form of patterns, after which gold, silver or copper wire is driven into them. Then the product is heated, which is why the wire is firmly connected to the base. The protruding wire could be ground off flush, or it could be left protruding above the metal surface. This method is called embossed. Now imagine that we are holding black blued armor, which we inlay (this method is also called "notch") with gold wire, which forms beautiful patterns on the black surface.
Further, again, the Italians inventors introduced into fashion, in addition to notching, also chasing for iron, and starting from 1580 they began to produce amazingly beautiful chased gilded armor, also decorated with carving and niello. Finally, in 1600 in Milan, armor and shields for them began to be decorated with large medallions in wreaths of leaves and flowers, but in the medallions themselves they depicted the exploits of Hercules, and erotic scenes from The Decameron, or even their own portraits (or rather, portraits of customers armor), usually in profile.
The simpler the better
Armor for horsemen of heavy cavalry - spearmen, cuirassiers and reitars, which spread again in the middle of the 16th century, were sometimes no lighter than knightly armor (lancers have it easier!), And sometimes even heavier, since they often had additional breastplates on a cuirass, so that protect yourself from bullets with … "spaced armor". They were also trimmed, but as simple as possible - not polished, but painted with black oil paint, and this was the end of the decoration. Well, in the next era, the horsemen of the heavy cavalry had only cuirasses left: either black, painted, or polished, metal, although sometimes they were even specially worn under a camisole.
P. S. The author and the site administration would like to thank the curators of the Vienna Armory Ilse Jung and Florian Kugler for the opportunity to use her photographs.
