Breastplate (c. 1550): Art, History and Details

Breastplate (c. 1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This breastplate, lacking its tassets, is nonetheless a fine example of the superb sculptural forms achieved by Renaissance armorers. Its contours and glancing surface illustrate the extremes sought by both armorers and patrons in order to deflect projectiles such as crossbow bolts and thrusting lances. Embellishment was an important aspect of fine armor. This breastplate bears a fine etched decoration of a kneeling knight, possibly the armor's owner, before the Crucifixion. This may have created a kind of personalized devotional image for use in combat.

Object facts

• Title: Breastplate
• Date: c. 1550
• Culture: Germany, Nuremberg
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel with etched figure kneeling before Crucifixion
• Dimensions: Overall: 31.3 x 35 x 20 cm (12 5/16 x 13 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1647

A detail from the museum

Engraving is one of the oldest techniques for decorating metal objects; here the artist used a sharp instrument to scratch the design into the surface.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 3, 16th century. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• 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.