Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/139

 be of French make, though in general lines it resembles the Italian form of close helmet to which we are about to allude (Fig. 1196). The skull-piece is modelled with graceful accuracy, and the fully protective visor and mezeil are of one plate, extending from well above the forehead to rather low down on the chin-piece. The whole surface of the helmet is of a blue-black patina, showing, as in the case of some of the finest Milanese products of the first quarter of the XVIth century, the actual hammer marks on the face of the metal. Its decoration is of the simplest, taking the form of slender branches of palms slightly embossed and gilded, the stalks of which are curiously intertwined. From the very characteristic manner in which the palm branches are rendered, it would almost seem as though they were intended to represent the cognizance of some house. The suit to which this helmet belongs is in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, where it is not described as the work of any particular armourer, or as having been worn by any particular person.

Italian, Milanese type, about 1560-70. National Bavarian Museum, Munich

Italian (Central), about 1560-70. Collection: Mr. S. J. Whawell

The close of the century brings us a period of marked decadence and aesthetic impotence, and we meet with that class of head-piece to which, regarded solely from a constructional point of view, we have given the name of the Milanese type. In these helmets the comb varies in height, the chin-piece opens down either side with gorget plates attached, and the visor and mezeil face guard are in separate plates. Of this type the best example we know of is a helmet to be seen in the National Bavarian Museum of Munich (Fig. 1197). Here is a head-piece possessed of all those