Black and White Elbow Gauntlet for the Right Hand (c.1570): Art, History and Details

Black and White Elbow Gauntlet for the Right Hand (c.1570) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Plate armor alternately decorated with brightly polished ("white") and darkened ("black") surface areas is commonly referred to as "black and white" armor. The black color results from painting the surface areas, or merely leaving them dark from the forging process. The gauntlet here has been further embellished with an embossed cuff. The 1500s saw the revival of this ancient technique also known as repoussé. First the pattern is drawn onto the surface and then hammered and punched from the inside to gradually shape the desired raised design on the outer surface of the metal. This technique was reserved for only the costliest of armors.

Object facts

• Title: Black and White Elbow Gauntlet for the Right Hand
• Date: c.1570
• Culture: North Germany, 16th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, blackened with leather
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.2 x 12.7 cm (17 x 5 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1082

A detail from the museum

To throw a gauntlet or armored glove at the feet of your enemy or opponent was a grave insult, one only to be matched with personal combat. This is where we get the modern phrase "throw down the gauntlet."

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.