Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/287

 [Photograph Anderson, Rome

From the picture of "St. George and the Dragon," by Paris Bordone

of the previous century to the warlike bluntness of the plain Maximilian style is very striking, but in the early work the old Gothic grace of outline is still strongly marked as is seen in a breastplate in the collection of Mr. S. J. Whawell (Fig. 1031). As we have previously remarked, the fluctuation in the civil costume of the time was mainly responsible for the change. The puffing and slashing of the sleeves of the doublets and of the trunks, together with a universal tendency in the opening years of the XVIth century towards sacrificing the lines of height for those of breadth, necessitated the invention of differently proportioned plates. A fine harness that may safely