Gothic Breastplate (c. 1540): Art, History and Details

Gothic Breastplate (c. 1540) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A breastplate is an element of armor that protects the chest and abdomen; it would have been worn with a now missing backplate. Nuremburg was one of the chief armor production centers and gained international renown; armor produced there was exported throughout Europe. It was not a coincidence that Nuremburg was known for its armor. The ore available in the region made Nuremburg an iron producing center close to the raw material needed to make a better quality and reliable product.

Object facts

• Title: Gothic Breastplate
• Date: c. 1540
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel
• Dimensions: Overall: 32.4 x 31.4 cm (12 3/4 x 12 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.684

A detail from the museum

If you are looking for this in the armor court make sure to look up; it is displayed as part of a panoply, or display with other arms.

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.
• Hôtel des Ventes, Beauvais. Catalogue des armes & armures, habit de Mestre de Camp composant la collection de M. le Marquis de Belleval et de Licques. Jan 21-23, 1901. Lot 17.
• 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: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.

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.