Schiavona Broadsword (early 1700s): Art, History and Details

Schiavona Broadsword (early 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The schiavona-type broadsword features a complex barred guard that slopes forward. Its name derives from the Italian word for "Slavonic" and refers to the Slavonian corps who served as bodyguards to the Doge of Venice until the end of the Venetian Republic in 1797. Such swords were popular mainly with Venetians.

Object facts

• Title: Schiavona Broadsword
• Date: early 1700s
• Culture: Italy, Venice
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, leather, wood, brass
• Dimensions: Overall: 109.9 cm (43 1/4 in.); Blade: 94 cm (37 in.); Grip: 9.2 cm (3 5/8 in.); Guard: 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.693

A detail from the museum

Usually used by the military, a broadsword has a straight, wide, two-edged blade a with basket-shaped guard that helps protect the hand.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 2, 16th century. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• 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.