Half Armor for the Foot Tournament (c. 1590): Art, History and Details

Half Armor for the Foot Tournament (c. 1590) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pompeo della Cesa (Italian, active 1572–93).

The work and its context

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

This armor was designed for the foot tournament, an event that was separate from the equestrian jousts popularized during the Middle Ages and still favored among Renaissance aristocracies throughout Europe. Foot tournaments were commonly fought over a barrier that separated the combatants and gave protection to their legs, so a half-armor such as this one provided sufficient protection. The original owner of this suit would have worn it with colorful puffed and slashed britches and hose. The use of outlandish accessories, such as a large ostrich feather plume (a brass plume holder may be seen on the back of the helmet) and red velvet pickadils between the steel plates, provided additional splendor.

Object facts

• Title: Half Armor for the Foot Tournament
• Date: c. 1590
• Creator attribution: Pompeo della Cesa (Italian, active 1572–93)
• Culture: Italy, Milan
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: etched and gilded steel, brass rivets, leather and velvet fittings
• Dimensions: Overall: 31.7 x 27.7 x 21.6 cm (12 1/2 x 10 7/8 x 8 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1996.299

A detail from the museum

Pompeo della Cesa was the Armani or Gucci of the 1500s; everyone wanted to wear him.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. The Important Collection of Arms and Armor, Mainly XV-XIX Century. 1951.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Renaissance Armor, Early Islamic Ceramic, French Vase, Gleitsman Painting Added to Museum Collection,” December 13, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Cleveland Museum of Art Annual Report, 1996. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997.

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.