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 CHAPTER XXIII

The XVIth century brings with it all that sumptuous decoration which many writers on the subject of armour affect to deplore, alleging that with the advent of embossing, damascening, surface plating, and general face ornament, the true art of the armourer disappeared. To a certain extent this view of the effect of Renaissance ornamentation on plate surface is correct, because beauty of outline was to a great extent lost sight of. But it is a view that can by no means be accepted as involving any sweeping indictment of XVIth century armour as a type.

When the utility of the defence is in no way interfered with and the ornamentation is strictly auxiliary and in keeping with the medium on which it is applied, nothing can justify a general condemnation of the armourer's craft of the XVIth century. The works of the Negroli, of Campi, of Mondrone, the Picinini of Italy, and of Seusenhofer, the Kolmans, and the Wolfs of Germany, have never been surpassed in any age. That the refined and useful simplicity of the XVth century has for ever disappeared may be matter for regret; but it must be remembered that in its place forms of surface enrichment of the highest possible merit are introduced. As the century progressed it must be admitted that an over-abundance of decoration set in which must always be the result of a too keen and indiscriminating competition between artist craftsmen. Indeed, we merely state a fact when we say that the desire of the armourer's patrons to vie with one another in the sumptuousness and magnificence of their armour contributed more to its deterioration in the XVIth century than the effectiveness attained in the use of gunpowder and firearms. By the second quarter of the century, however, experience taught the soldier that a war harness offered but slight resistance to an arquebus ball; with the result that in the armour manufactured richness of effect was aimed at rather than genuine protective quality. But, since armoured apparel of some kind was necessary to almost every rank, the headguards and bodyguards were still