Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/371

 pieces, gauntlets, intricate leg-pieces, and its lance helmet. Its iron shield, shoulder-piece da barriera, another celada da barriera, a half-visor, the shaft of the lance, his sword without scabbard and his iron mace. The saddle of purple damask Cordova leather and the charger with all its furnishings and the plume of feathers on the head of the horse, and another plume of feathers on the helm of the head of Gattamella." And to follow on: "On the stair the wooden horse in imitation bronze, upon which there is the armour of Gattamella." In the inventory of 1773 the suit is alluded to as follows: "Horse of wood, with iron armour, iron mace in hand, stirrup of brass, in memory of the late Gattamella, who fought under Braccio di Montone in Italian wars in 1435; created a General of the Venetian soldiers, he made notable conquests for the Republic, who caused to be erected in his honour an equestrian statue close to the Church of S. Antonio, at Padua." In another record of 1799 there is a further brief reference: "Horse of wood with its furnishings, and above, the armour of Gattamella with the iron-tipped mace in hand." Apart from the ocular evidence as to the true age of the suit, it is as well here to note that in the inventory of the Arsenal for the year 1548 there is no mention of the armour of Gattamelata or of a suit corresponding with it; so we may safely ascribe the period of the acquisition of the suit and of its attribution to the said general to the first half of the XVIth century.

Although in the modern official catalogue the suit is described as being of Brescian make, we have little hesitation in stating that it is of German manufacture, and probably the work of one of the Wolfs of Landshut; but as we have never had the opportunity of taking it apart or of making a minute examination of it, we are unable to state whether or not it bears an armourer's mark. Its decoration belongs to the school which is so closely associated with Augsburg and Landshut, distinguished, that is to say, by slightly raised or recessed bands etched with duplicated gilt ornaments. The suit appears almost intact, with the steels of the saddle; the sollerets are associated with it, and are of earlier date; the pauldrons are remarkable for their great size and for the manner in which they wrap over the breastplate in front, almost meeting, and show a similar formation at the back, a feature quite in the accepted Italian XVth century style (Vol. i, Fig. 217). They have permanently attached to them large upright shoulder guards, below which are four deep lames. The whole construction of these large shoulder defences appears most cumbersome; but, as we have said, it is in strict accordance with that of XVth century suits made à la façon d'Italie.