Mail and The Knight in Renaissance Italy PDF
Mail and The Knight in Renaissance Italy PDF
Mail and The Knight in Renaissance Italy PDF
SOMMARIO
R. Franci pag. 5
Riaprono, completamente restaurate, le Sale Giapponesi del
Museo Stibbert
T. Capwell pag. 9
Mail and the Knight in Renaissance Italy. Part I
J. Sensfelder pag. 85
Bronze preserves History: Epitaphs of the Nuremberg
Cemeteries
9
Tobias Capwell
Mail ‘Sabatons’
Early History
It is tempting to assume that the mail foot defences
of the fifteenth century must in some way have descended
from the mail chausses with integral foot covers worn
in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Chausses often covered the fronts and sides of the legs
and feet only, being cross-laced around the back of the
leg and under the foot, but by c. 11501 they could be
constructed as full stockings or ‘hosen’ of mail, complete
with integral feet. Chausses of this type remained in
use until the late fourteenth century in Italy; as more
substantial forms of leg armour were introduced – of
quilted textile, hardened and/or splinted leather, and
metal – they were simply worn over the mail chausses,
which formed a protective foundation. It might therefore
seem reasonable to assume that the mail sabatons of the
fifteenth century were vestigial of these earlier forms of
mail armour. However this does not appear to be the
case.
Mail chausses with integral feet seem to have been
worn in Italy until around 1360. Up to this point they
are found illustrated on the funerary monuments of
Italian men-at-arms, worn under poleyns and greaves of
leather and/or metal; some form of cuisse was probably
also employed, but the long skirts of the coat of plates
and mail shirt invariably hide them from view in effigial
depictions. Good examples of this set-up are found on
the effigies of Giovanni di Castruccio Castracane degli
Antelminelli (d. 1343; S. Francesco, Pisa) and Johann
Huler de Egran (d. 1359; S. Romano, Lucca)2.
Fig. 2 a
17
Fig. 2 a -2 b −
Thomas Kerrich’s
drawings of the
effigy of Giovanni
di Poggio (d.
after 1391), once
in the church of
San Lorenzo di
Poggio, Lucca; now
destroyed. British
Library, London,
Add. MS. 6728,
fols. 176-7. Fig. 2 b
a b
c d
1438 and 14409, dates from the time when mail sabatons
of the three-quarter, exposed-toe type were at the height
of their popularity. They are made up of thirty-two rows
of links, the last two forward rows formed of copper
alloy rather than iron links, a form of decoration also
found on many of the more detailed depictions in art.
They do not include any special adjustments or shaping
in their construction, being simply rectangular panels of
fine mail, stitched through the lines of holes punched
along the lower edges of the greaves with lengths of wire.
There is no evidence of attachment points to the foot,
although such fastenings must once have existed (see
below). Like those found in some (but by no means all)
of the contemporary images, these extant mail sabatons
were each designed to extend beyond the lower edge of
the greave at the sides of the ankle, carefully fitted so
that they reach down to each side of the sole of the foot
without actually meeting the ground.
Three-quarter mail sabatons seem to have continued
to be worn into the middle of the fifteenth century,
and are still in evidence in the 1450s. However, after
1450 they appear less and less frequently, increasingly
E.1939.65.e. Formerly Churburg Castle, no. 20; see Graf Trapp
1929, pp. 48-55, pl. XXIII; Mann 1956, pp. 2-9; Woosnam-Savage
1990, pp. 5-11; Scalini 1996, pp. 77-78; Joubert 2006, pp. 9-11
(catalogue entry almost certainly written by R. L. Scott himself);
Capwell 2006, pp. 26-29.
9 Although the armour is the product of the Corio workshop,
with most of its parts carrying the marks of Giovanni, Ambrogio,
Bellino and Dionisio Corio, the leg armour is the work of Giovanni
da Garavalle, who in 1438 was contracted to make leg armour under
Giovanni Corio. See Boccia 1982a, p. 282.
26
Fig. 8a - 8b − Field
armour, made in
Milan by Giovanni,
Ambrogio, Bellino
and Dionisio Corio,
with Giovanni da
Garavalle, c. 1438-40.
Glasgow Museums,
inv. no. E.1939.65.e.
The helmet and right
gauntlet are authentic
but did not originally
belong to this armour,
while the left gauntlet
was made in the
twentieth century.
Fig. 8a
27
Fig. 8b
28
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
29
Figs. 9-12 −
Details of the
relief panels of
the triumphal
arch of Alfonso
V of Aragon,
by Francesco
Laurana, c.
1455-8. Castel
Nuovo, Naples.
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
sports a bevor and visored sallet in the West European
fashion. When we turn to the feet, all current fashions in
armoured footwear are represented (Figs. 11-12) – plate
sabatons as well as both partial and full mail sabatons.
Several of the figures also wear what one might call
‘half-sabatons’, something of a role-reversal of the late
fourteenth-century ankle mail and toe-plates approach,
with assemblies of three or four plates which protect the
30
a b c
Fig. 13 −
a) After a detail from a series of drawings of ‘Illustrious Men’, c. 1435-
45. Istituto al Gabinetto dei disegni e stampe, Rome, FN 2818-33.
b) After a detail from Constantine’s Victory Over Maxentius, from the
Legend of the Cross fresco cycle by Piero Della Francesca, 1464-6. S.
Francesco, Arezzo.
c) After a detail from The Three Archangels with Tobias, by Francesco
Botticini, c. 1490. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
top of the foot, while the middle area and toes are covered
only with mail. It should be noted that, although they
are still in evidence at this point, fast approaching 1460,
partial mail sabatons are less common- the majority of
examples illustrated on the triumphal arch in Naples are
of the full-foot form.
Fig. 14 − After a
detail from Saint
George, by the
Master of Santa
Maria degli
Angeli a Gardone
val Trompia, c.
1500. Pinacoteca
Tosio Martinegro,
Brescia, inv. no.
306.
Fig. 15
35
Fig. 17
36
Fig. 18
37
Fig. 19 Fig. 20
Figs. 18-21 −
Composite field
armour, made by
Antonio Missaglia,
Giovanni Negroli,
and others, Milan,
c.1450-60.
Museo Diocesano,
Mantua, inv.
no. B1 (per
gent. conc. del
Museo Diocesano
F. Gonzaga -
Mantova).
Fig. 21
12 See Mann 1930, pp. 125-126, and Mann 1938, p. 329.
39
Methods of Attachment
13 The very famous gilt copper alloy effigy of Edward the Black
Prince (1330-1376) embodies one of the most accurate and well-
observed three-dimensional depictions of late fourteenth-century
armour, and yet, while some of the most prominent technical details
have been included, such as the lines of rivets on the great helm
placed under the head, almost all articulation rivets on the armour
have been omitted. The reason for this may have been simply that the
articulation rivets were a functional necessity on the actual armour
but were not intended to form a special visual feature. Instead, their
removal from the effigy serves to accentuate the smooth, graceful
forms and clean lines of the idealised armour. The author would like
to thank Robert Macpherson for this observation.
40
Fig. 22
41
Figs. 22-23 −
Detail from
Virgin and
Child with
Saints, by Piero
della Francesca,
c. 1472-5.
Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan,
Nap. 516/Reg.
Cron. 180.
Fig. 23
42
Fig. 25 Fig. 26
Fig. 27 − After a detail from The Virgin and Child with Saints,
by Lorenzo Costa and Gianfrancesco Maineri, c. 1499. National
Gallery, London, inv. no. NG1119.
Fig. 29 − After
a detail from
La Madonna
della Vittoria,
by Andrea
Mantegna, c.
1495. Musée du
Louvre, Paris,
inv. no. 369.
Figs. 30-31 −
Detail from
The Virgin
and Child
with Saints, by
Francesco and
Bernardino
Zaganelli,
dated 1499.
Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan.
inv. no. 457.
Fig. 30
53
Fig. 31
19 1407 Gonzaga inventory, line 38; Mann 1938a, pp. 276-277.
20 Mann 1938, p. 329.
21 Mann 1938, p. 329.
56
Fig. 32 − After
a detail of a
fresco depicting
a joust, by Azzo
di Masetto,
c. 1289-99.
Sala di Dante,
Palazzo
Comunale, San
Gimignano.
Fig. 33 − After
the funerary
slab of Filippo
de Desideri, d.
1315. From
San Domenico,
Bologna, now
Museo Civico
Medievale,
Bologna, inv.
no. 1642.
a b
Fig. 36
this part of the armour until the late 1300s. The one-
piece poleyn was mounted on the thigh piece and this
complete cuisse of leather and iron was worn with a
separate enclosed greave, either of leather or metal, as
had been the case since at least 1300. This arrangement
still required some device to maintain a good interaction
between the poleyn and the greave; this necessity
continued to be met, not so often by a fully-enveloping
sheath of mail as found on the da Fogliano fresco, but
now most commonly by a rectangular piece of mail hung
from the lower edge of the poleyn itself (Figs. 35-36). It
is possible that some type of strapping or lacing system
was employed to hold the mail valance in place around
the top of the greave, although pictorial representations
do not tend to include this detail, if it ever existed.
62
Fig. 39 Fig. 40
Fig. 42
23 These pieces were present on their cuisses when the Mantua
armours were still mounted in their niches in the Sanctuary at
Curtatone; they are therefore unlikely to be anything other than
original. See Mann 1930, p. 126, pl. XXII, fig. 10.
68
Fig. 44 − Detail of a
composite field armour,
made by Pietro da Castello
of Brescia, Cristoforo
Capelli of Milan and
others, c. 1480-90. Museo
Diocesano, Mantua, inv.
no. B4. Photo of Tobias
Capwell.
Fig. 45 − Detail of a
composite field armour,
by Antonio Missaglia of
Milan, Giovanni Antonio
delle Fibbie of Brescia and
others, c. 1470-90. Museo
Diocesano, Mantua, inv.
no. B3. Photo of Tobias
Capwell.
24 It is also notable that all of the primary Italian armours dating
from around 1440 and later that never carried valances on their
cuisses (the ‘Avant’ armour c. 1438-1440 at the Kelvingrove Art
Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, inv. no. E.1939.65.e; the armour of
Frederick ‘the Victorious’, Hofjagd –und Rüstkammer, Vienna, inv.
no. A2) also include the pin attachment points on their greaves for
the demi-greave, the only exception being the armour of Ulrich IX,
Vogt of Matsch, c. 1445-1450, at Churburg Castle, inv. no. 19.
70
26 See Mann 1930, p. 126, pl. 28, fig. 3; Mann 1938, pp. 316,
329.
27 See Pinti 1997.
72
Fig. 48 − Detail
from The Virgin
and Child with
Saints, by Lorenzo
Costa, c. 1492.
Church of St
Petronio (Basilica),
Bologna. Photo of
Tobias Capwell.
73
Fig. 49a
Fig. 49 −
a) After a detail of Scipio Africanus, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, c.
1482-5. Room of the Lilies, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
75
Fig. 49b
Fig. 49 −
b) After a detail of Virgin and Child, with Saints Apollonia and
Sebastian, by Davide Ghirlandaio, c. 1490. Philadelphia Museum
of Art, inv. no. 65.
76
Fig. 50 − Detail
from The Martyrdom
of St Sebastian, c.
1490. St. Sebastian
Chapel, Church of St.
Petronio (Basilica)
Bologna. Photo of
Tobias Capwell.
Fig. 53 − After
a detail from
The Virgin
and Child
with Saints,
by Lorenzo
Costa and
Gianfrancesco
Maineri,
c. 1499.
National
Gallery,
London, inv.
no. NG1119.
Fig. 54 – Other
example of form of
enclosed valance are
depicted in a semi-
relief Saint George,
Lombard, c. 1460-
1470. Pinacoteca
Tosio Martinegro,
Brescia, inv. no. 114
(Archivio fotografico
Musei di Brescia-
Fotostudio Rapuzzi).
81
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83
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84
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