Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/188



By Lucio Picinino, about 1560. This head-piece, together with a shield, are supposed to have been presented, in 1561, to the Emperor Maximilian II by his brother-in-law, Duke William of Mantua

has suffered somewhat from rust oxidization, the quality of the gold azzimina damascening and plating is fine and strangely early in style, though we are unable to consider the casque as dating before about 1560. It is certainly the work of Lucio Picinino. It takes the usual form of a mid-XVIth century burgonet exhibiting a decorative scheme admirably grouped, if, to our taste, overcrowded. The skull-piece is embossed on either side and this decoration is in the form of a medallion, with a flat-raised border covered with arabesqued foliage in gold. The left-hand medallion shows an armed warrior, beneath him a recumbent nude figure of a man, and by his side a fully draped woman holding a short spear with a shield on her left arm, and having behind her a satyr; this subject probably represents Valour, with Cowardice at his feet, and sustained by Wisdom. The corresponding medallion depicts a partially draped female figure over a crouched satyr—her right foot resting on the base of a column—and holding in her right hand a viola, and in her left the chain enslaving the satyr; on the left Mercury is coming rapidly towards her with a garland in his hand. As in the companion medallion, a walled city can be seen. Near the base of the column are two stringed musical instruments. In the front of the large medallions, over the umbril of the helmet, are figures, partially draped in striped garments, emblematic of Fame and Victory. Behind the medallions,