Pauldron for Right Shoulder (1600s): Art, History and Details

Pauldron for Right Shoulder (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This element for the shoulder once belonged to a suit decorated by the bluing technique, a process of superheating armor plates to achieve a deep blue color. Gilding the borders created additional contrast for a refined appearance.

Object facts

• Title: Pauldron for Right Shoulder
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: blued steel with gilt borders
• Dimensions: Overall: 27.4 x 24.3 cm (10 13/16 x 9 9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1524

A detail from the museum

Bluing required heating to at least 590 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which oxidation occurs and turns the metal a deep shade of blue.

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.