Rondache (Round Shield) (c. 1570): Art, History and Details

Rondache (Round Shield) (c. 1570) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Highly decorated circular shields like this one were a specialty of the city of Milan. This shield would have originally belonged to an armor that would have been decorated to match - with radiating etched bands of classical warriors and trophies.

Object facts

• Title: Rondache (Round Shield)
• Date: c. 1570
• Culture: Italy, Milan
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: etched and gilded steel with brass rivets
• Dimensions: Diameter: 57.8 cm (22 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1504

A detail from the museum

The escutcheons, or small shields radiating around the center, contain scenes of mythical combat; during the Renaissance there was often a preoccupation with the antique world.

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.