Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/109

 the lance, which shows that the suit was essentially made for parade use. A cabasset with ear-pieces forms the head defence. The deeply bitten etching on this suit, though coarse, is effective, representing Roman horsemen, allegorical personages, arms, musical instruments, and arabesques. On the top centre of the breastplate is a figure of the Virgin holding the infant Christ. The etching, richly gilt upon a background filled in with black pigment, taken in conjunction with the brightened bands that form part of the theme of decoration is, we admit, effective; but effect thus attained is meretricious, and the drawing of the various ornamental details is weak and decadent. The harness is, however, in a fine state of preservation, and retains much of its original velvet lining. Glued to the inside of the breastplate is a piece of paper, which gives a description in German of the armour, mentioning that it is alleged to have belonged to Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice. As Foscari died in 1457, the German word angeblich (alleged) is not out of place; for the true date of the suit is about 1595-1610. The etching found on this type of armour takes various forms; generally it consists of vertical bands of various degrees of richness. We show another suit selected from the Stibbert Collection of Florence (Fig. 1156) which, though perhaps a little composite, is certainly of better make from the point of view of actual armour. Here the etching is not gilded, but merely added to the bright ground of the armour, and filled in with a black pigment. The design, it will be noted, is practically a meaningless conglomeration of portions of figures, arms, etc., which, viewed from a distance, has a spotty appearance, and which has led to its being called in the vernacular of the armour collector "Mops and Brooms" engraving. We very readily admit that, despite the coarseness of this so-called Pisan armour, it must, in combination with the fine textile materials employed late in the XVIth century, have had a really rich effect. Look at it, for instance, as it appears in two late XVIth century portraits (Figs. 1157 and 1158), or as it is depicted in our illustration of an arranged figure in the Stibbert Collection (Fig. 1159). The armour on this figure is, we must confess, a very clever example of reconstruction, and should prove useful to the student of costume; but from the point of view of serious study of armaments it is a restoration far too drastic to be admissible.

To complete our list of the full armaments of the XVIth century we will give, as we always endeavour to give, the illustration of a suit of armour, together with a contemporary picture of it. In this case, the reproduction is that of a picture in the Louvre attributed to Amerighi, a portrait