Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/260

 CHAPTER VII

CONTINUED GENERAL HISTORY OF ARMOUR, A.D. 1400-1500

Having alluded to the six Italian suits that we think are the earliest existing harnesses known, let us consider the representation of these Italian suits in contemporary pictorial art. In the convent of Saint Apollonia, Florence, there is a series of fresco paintings, the work of Andrea del Castagno. They are the portraits of celebrated men painted about 1430 for the Villa Pandolfini at Legnaia, including Farinata degli Uberti and Pippo Spano. The armaments of the latter two are splendidly and accurately drawn, and in their harness a very distinct Missaglia-like influence can be traced, an influence more primitive than that which marks the work of even Tomaso (Figs. 219 and 220). Could the suits of armour represented in these portraits be such as were made by Tomaso's father, Petrajolo? Note the exaggerated left pauldron, with an enormous rondel attached to it; this is similarly depicted in the Bedford missal where Henry V is represented being armed by his esquires (Fig. 221). Observe, too, in the second of the two figures that extraordinary formation of genouillères in which the large side wings are continued round the back bend of the leg. In the National Gallery the picture of St. George by Pisano Pisanello (Fig. 222), painted in 1438, shows this very extraordinary feature in knee defence accurately represented on the almost back view of the right leg upon which the saint rests. Here is shown the genouillère plate completely encircling the leg. It is, of course, impossible to speak definitely, but from the very accurate painting of the left genouillère it would appear to be of different construction; for viewed as it is in direct profile, the extremely sharp outline of the knee-wing certainly lends to it no appearance of being drawn out and round at its hindermost edge to meet the corresponding inside plate of the knee-plate. Almost the only other instance of this formation is to be seen on the brass of Sir Thomas Grene in Green's Norton Church, Northamptonshire, A.D. 1462 (Fig. 223). Other portions of the armour on Pisano's St. George are worthy