Seven-Flanged Mace (c. 1540–50): Art, History and Details

Seven-Flanged Mace (c. 1540–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The mace was primarily a weapon for mounted warriors in both actual combat and courtly contests. For this reason it was regarded as a knightly weapon. Arming oneself with a mace had gradually taken on significance among the nobility and commanding officers. It eventually came to be considered a badge of rank, to be carried by its owner in parades and other ceremonial occasions, as this decorated example certainly was.

Object facts

• Title: Seven-Flanged Mace
• Date: c. 1540–50
• Culture: Italy(?)
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: gilded russet steel; with chiseled foliate decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 64.5 cm (25 3/8 in.); Head: 11.4 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1589

A detail from the museum

In use throughout the middle ages, the mace became increasingly popular in the 1400s and 1500s because edged weapons (such as swords) were ineffective against fully developed plate armor.

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.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Helen Ives Gilchrist. Handbook of the Severance Collection of Arms and Armor. 2d ed., 1948.

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.