Body Guard (Brigandine) (c. 1500–1525): Art, History and Details

Body Guard (Brigandine) (c. 1500–1525) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The brigandine is a light, vest-like body defense popular with both knights and infantry from the 1400s through about 1550. It is constructed of multiple small plates attached to a cloth covering. Finer examples, like this one, are faced in velvet or fabric made of gold thread. The lightweight brigandine provided protection from the weather, and was extremely flexible.

Object facts

• Title: Body Guard (Brigandine)
• Date: c. 1500–1525
• Culture: Italy(?)
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: linen; gold velvet; steel; brass
• Dimensions: Overall: 56.5 x 47.6 cm (22 1/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1921.1250

A detail from the museum

This vest only weighs about five and a half pounds, considerably lighter than plate armor.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• American Art Association. An Important Collection of Ancient Arms and Armor. 1921.
• 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.
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. Handbook of the Severance Collection of Arms and Armor. Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1948.

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.