Two-Handed Sword (1550–1600): Art, History and Details

Two-Handed Sword (1550–1600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The two-handed sword, originally a weapon of war for specialist infantry, is so named because two hands were required to wield it. By the late 1600s, these enormous swords assumed a largely ceremonial or bodyguard function.

Object facts

• Title: Two-Handed Sword
• Date: 1550–1600
• Culture: Germany, second half of 16th Century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel; leather and wood grip, cloth-covered middle
• Dimensions: Overall: 191.5 cm (75 3/8 in.); Blade: 144.8 cm (57 in.); Quillions: 41.5 cm (16 5/16 in.); Grip: 40.7 cm (16 in.); Ricasso: 33.4 cm (13 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1919.68

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.

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.