Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/269



German, 1543. The work of Matheus Frawenbrys, the elder, of Augsburg. D 68, Royal Armoury, Madrid

German. The work of Matheus Frawenbrys, the elder, of Augsburg. M 6, Royal Armoury, Madrid

Fortitude in a triumphal car supported by men, Victory in another drawn by lions, Minerva, or Knowledge, in a third drawn by horses, and, finally, Peace borne on the shoulders of several kings. In the intervening spaces are other kings, seated on thrones, and surrounded by numerous figures, masks, and foliage. This shield, which can still be seen in the Royal Armoury, Madrid (A 241) was part of the panoply made by Desiderius Kolman for Philip II of Spain. It was fashioned to go with the harness there numbered A 239, though strangely enough, in spite of its being the signed piece of the set it is slightly inferior in workmanship; which goes to prove that though the Kolman family excelled in the making of body armour they were less successful alike as artists and as craftsmen in their attempts to produce such purely decorative armament as they here essayed. Another signed and dated shield in the Royal Armoury of Madrid (D 68) is German, Augsburg in make, the work of Matheus Frawenbrys (or Frauenpreis) the elder, an armourer who took over the atelier of Brictius Kolman of Augsburg (Fig. 1312). He is first mentioned in 1530 and appears to have died in 1549, or six years after this shield was made, for it is signed and bears the date 1543. The poinçon used by the Frawenbrys, father and son, was a trefoil in a tulip-*shaped shield, taken from their arms. Frawenbrys' actual work on this shield consisted of the making and embossing of it; it is recorded that the ''aqua fortis'' etching of the surface was the work of Hans Burgkmair.