Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/213

 academic, care which is so noticeable in the ornamentation of this Colbert head-piece, a feature very apparent indeed in the entire family of armour to which this burgonet belongs.

In our endeavour to establish the French provenance of this helmet and of its companion pieces, we made by the aid of photographs and personal observation a careful study of all such defensive arms as resemble this casque from the double point of view of art and technique; with the result that, though their artist-armourer still remains unknown, we can now confidently ascribe to the same armourer or to the same workshop some twenty examples which till now no one has been able to assign to any known armourer. This conviction is shared by the Baron de Cosson, who holds that all these pieces came from an armoury established at the Louvre under François I^{er} or Henri II, and would appear to be confirmed by the fact that the suit of armour of Henri II at the Louvre was left unfinished (see Vol. iii, Fig. 1092).

In the Royal Armoury of Turin there is a shield undoubtedly from the same hand: the shape is the same, so is the general arrangement of the subjects, which include a battle, captives, antique war trophies, masks, and a framework of interlaced strapwork. Further, the lower mask is surmounted by the crescent of Diana of Poitiers (post, Fig. 1323). The shield attributed to Charles V in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna, although differing in form, shows the same arrangement of subjects as that in Turin, except that most of the figures are nude—the same captives, the same war trophies, the same masks (post, Fig. 1324). Captives bent and cowering, turning their backs, are found on each of these three bucklers; all the works, indeed, which we would attribute to this same master show a marked predilection on his part to show the modelling of the backs of the torsos of the figures. In Windsor Castle armoury is the famous shield made by the same unknown master (post, Fig. 1317). According to tradition, interesting since it indicates that the shield came from the royal house of France, it was a gift from François I to Henry VIII; but it would appear rather to date from the reign of Elizabeth. The subject is the history of Pompey; but the style is the same as that of the other pieces of this series, and the back views of the same figures armed in the same way are again found. In the collection of Baroness Rothschild there is a shield which presents a great resemblance to that shown at Windsor. It is a round shield on the edge of which is represented the crowned monogram of Henri II, and the crescent, quiver, and arrows