Rapier (c. 1580–1610): Art, History and Details

Rapier (c. 1580–1610) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The rapier was a sword worn with civilian dress and used in duels. The term rapier derives from the 16th-century French word rapière, which in turn derived from the Spanish espada ropera, or “dress sword.” The rapier was a light weapon with a straight double-edged and pointed blade that, with the development of the art of fencing in the 1500s and 1600s, gradually became narrower and lighter, and thus suitable for thrusts only. With the new technique of swordplay emphasizing the point of the blade, sword guards became more complex to protect the duelist’s unarmored hand. These elaborate guards were frequently decorated by various techniques—chiseling, bluing, russeting, and damascening.

Object facts

• Title: Rapier
• Date: c. 1580–1610
• Culture: Blade: Spain, Toledo Hilt: Italt, Belluno?, late 16th-early 17th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, ribbed guard and pommel; wood and wire
• Dimensions: Overall: 135.9 cm (53 1/2 in.); Blade: 111.1 cm (43 3/4 in.); Quillions: 25.5 cm (10 1/16 in.); Grip: 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1974.59

A detail from the museum

During this time fencing academies were already in existence in Milan, Venice, Verona, and Madrid, and the rules of fencing evolved with two styles dominating, the Spanish and the Italian.

Collection credit

Gift from the Bascom Little Estate

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

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.