Triumphal finery: Mannerism in the art of Italian armour

Of all the possessions of the sixteenth century nobleman, few spoke more eloquently of his wealth, taste and social standing than those that he wore. As the nominal if not actual head of his army, the message conveyed by his military attire was clearly as important to him as that conveyed by the finery that he wore at court. In an age conscious of the political value of costly pageantry, it was perhaps inevitable that competition should arise between rival rulers to appear in the richest and most impressive armours possible. Made in many cases for show father than actual use, such lavish works of art called for new levels of skill on the part of the armourer.

None rose to the challenge with greater distinction than the armourers of northern Italy who had been the international leaders in their craft from at least the fourteenth century. Among the earliest to succeed in exploiting the demand for elaborate parade armours was Filippo Negroli of Milan (c. 1510-79), later aided by his brothers, whose superlative skills and imaginative designs earned him the patronage of the Emperor Charles v, the French kings Francois I and Henri II and other prominent princes of the time. In 1998-99, following a thorough reappraisal of the works attributed to the Negroli family by Stuart W. Pyhrr and Jose-A. Godoy, and new archival research by Silvio Leydi, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, staged its landmark exhibition 'Heroic Armor and the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries'. Although unsponsored and therefore without funds for extensive advertising, the exhibition nevertheless attracted much interest and acclaim, earning from APOLLO the accolade of 'Exhibition of the Year'. (1)

Encouraged by this success, Godoy--once again availing himself of the important archival work of Leydi--mounted at the Musee Rath, Geneva, last summer, the exhibition 'Parures Triomphales: Le manierisme dans l'art de l'armure itelienne', which took forward the story of the Italian parade armour from the time of the Negroli to the early seventeenth century. Broader in scope than its predecessor, the exhibition can with some justification lay claim to having been the most spectacular collection of fine armour ever the have been assembled in one place at one time.

It is perhaps inevitable with exhibits of such exceptional quality that a relatively high proportion of them will have been familiar ones to the specialist visitor--if only through published illustrations. Some, indeed, such as the armour made by Giovan Battista Panzeri, called Zarabaglia, and Marco Antonio Fava of Milan for the Archduke Ferdinand II of Tirol about 1559-60 (no. 17) and that probably made by Lucio Marliano, called Piccinino, of Milan for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, about 1576-80 (nos. 75-76) (Fig. 1) have long been icons in their field and, not unexpectedly, took up prominent positions in the exhibition. Others, however, came under the spotlight for the first time.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

One can perhaps offer no higher praise to the designers of the exhibition than to suggest that even those visitors who had some previous acquaintance with its exhibits must have come away with a feeling that they had in many cases seen them properly for the first time. Published illustrations may convey a reasonably good impression of the boldly embossed ornament that dominates the decoration of so many pieces shown in the exhibition, but rarely do justice to the exquisite chasing and damascening that contribute so much to their brilliant appearance. To appreciate the richness of and splendour of these remarkable works of art fully, they have to be viewed at first hand. The Musee Rath offered an unprecedented opportunity to do so. Spaciously displayed and individually lit within a darkened setting, the one hundred and three objects that for two months graced its galleries can rarely have been seen to better advantage.

This is certainly true of the spectacular horse armour or bard made in Milan about 1585 for Charles Emanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and subsequently presented to Philip III of Spain in 1603 (no. 87), which for the first time displayed in a way that permitted a proper appreciation of the vast labour that went into its production. The stunning group of pieces hr the Turkish fashion made for the Duke of Savoy in Milan in the same period, and likewise sent to Spain as part of the gift of 1603, were perhaps the greatest surprise of the exhibition. Among other welcome surprises were the extraordinary series of painted saddles made for the Emperor Charles v and his son Philip II in Italy about 1535-50, which have only recently attracted scholarly attention.

It must obviously be seen as a matter for regret that despite the enormous amount of new research that went into the preparation of the exhibition, so few of the pieces shown in it can be attributed to specific hands. Indeed, as noted in the accompanying catalogue, even the authorship of the large group of late sixteenth-century embossed and demascened pieces that have confidently been attributed in the past to the hand of Lucio Piccinino (more properly Marliano), must be called into doubt. Paolo Morigia, in his La Nobilita di Milano of 1595, praised Lucio Piccinino both for his relief work in iron and silver and his damascening, noting that he had made costly armours for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, and other princes. Although it has generally been assumed that the Farnese armour mentioned by Morigia is that now preserved in Vienna (no. 75), recent research in the Farnese archives has failed to discover any payment to Lucio Piccinino, raising a question mark over the attribution of that and other related armours to his hand.

In these circumstances, particular importance was attached by the organisers of the exhibition to a saddle-plate from the collections at Cracow (no. 84), bearing the engraved signature 'LUCIO/IER', identified for the first time as that of Lucio Piccinino and his associate Gerolamo Assi. Also recognised as a key piece was a shield of about 1560-66 from the collections at St Petersburg (no. 28), bearing the mark 'MP', tentatively identified as that of Matteo Piatti of Milan.

Especially welcome was the identification of Andrea Casalini of Parma as the artist responsible for designing the decoration of the 'Piccinino' armour of Alessandro Farnese (no. 76). The temporary reunion of Casalini's now scattered drawings for that decoration with the armour itself can be counted among the most pleasing accomplishments of the exhibition.

The sheer quality of the decoration of the pieces selected for display by the Musee Rath must in many cases have come as a surprise even to those having a previous acquaintance with fine armour, and was doubtless a greater revelation still to those who came to the subject afresh. Few visitors on leaving the exhibition are likely to have dissented from the view that the objects that they saw deserved to be counted among the costliest and most remarkable works of art of their age, which is most certainly how they would have been viewed at the time of their manufacture.

The long-term legacy of the exhibition must inevitably be the sumptuous and very substantial catalogue that accompanied it. Comprising five hundred and sixty seven pages with four hundred coloured and half-tone illustrations, it provides, in addition to a detailed record of the contents of the exhibition itself, reproductions of large numbers of the graphic sources relating to their decoration, valuable introductory discussions and a sixty-nine page appendix with new biographical information and family trees relating to the leading Italian armourers of the relevant period, making it an essential starting-point for all future studies in this field.

The exhibition 'Triumphal finery: Mannerism in the Art of Italian Armour" was at the Musee Rath, Geneva, from 20 May until 20 July 2003. The catalogue, in French and Italian, by Jose-A. Godoy and Silvio Leydi, is published by the Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, and 5 Continents Editions SLR, Milan, 2003, ISBN 88-7439-032-7, 65 [euro] (French version); ISBN 88 7439 031 9, 80 [euro] (Italian version)

(1) See David Ekserdjian,' "Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance": Filippo Negroli and his contemporaries', exh. rev., APOLLO, vol. CXLVIII, no. 442 (December 1988), pp. 12-16.

Ian Eaves was Keeper of Armour at the Royal Armouries, HM Tower of London, for eighteen years and since 1995 he has served as President of the Arms and Armour Society. He is at present a freelance arms and armour consultant, undertaking cataloguing and research work for various museums and institutions in Britain and the US.

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