Thread by @Knightly_H

Throughout the 1500s, the RENAISSANCE affected the design of Arms and Armor⚔️

Nobles comissioned lavish suits, meant to inspire classical antiquity and mythology, and dressed them for parades and tournaments.

Here's a THREAD🧵 on some of the most beautiful ALLA ANTICA armor.

The extants are mainly from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kunsthistorisches (Vienna).

But there's tons of examples in other museums like the Wallace Collection, the Bargello, the Hermitage and I cannot possibly fit them all.

You can check the ALT-Text for references.

Let's Begin with a familiar example from the MET.

A mermaid has been embossed on this Burgonet to take the place of the comb often seen on this kind of helmet.

Perhaps we should thank that it's missing the cheekplates, since it served as inspiration for Cainhurst's helmet.

Continuing on helmets, it's very Typical to see close helmets of various kinds covered in all sorts of embossing built around the eye-slits and face-opening.

Often, these helmets are meant to mimick the appearance of monsters, like this example from Brescia, circa 1550.

Often times however, the monsters are simply all over the helmet's surfcae, like in this example from Giovan Paolo Negroli.

The italian Negroli family made many of the examples you'll see here and were the most prolific armourers in this style.

Here's a particularly BIZARRE looking burgonet housed a the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.


Our friends at @DCoalition3D made a pretty accurate 3D model of it for MORDHAU. khm.at/en/object/3731…

Made for Guiobaldo II della Rovere, here's what I consider to be the crowning jewell of the All' Antica style.

A full suit of armor and matching clothing meant to mimick an ancient warrior.

The muscular cuirass is made in multiple pieces to allow for further mobility.

According to Bartolomeo Campi, he finished this incredible masterpiece in 2 MONTHS as per request of the prince, even though normally he would've required a full year.

This armor is housed at the Armeria Real, in Madrid.

A suit made by Filippo Negroli.

The construction of the cuirass is similar to armor seen in eastern europe and turkey, maille interlinked with lames. The helmet is sadly missing it's buffe (facial guard).

Housed at the Kunsthistorisches Musuem, Vienna.
khm.at/de/object/3728…

The eye catching helmet from the previous armor isn't a completely unique example.

This one belonged to Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Vth, and it's sadly also missing part of it's facial armor, but it at least retains the bevor.

Housed at the Real Armeria, in Madrid.

And before we move on from these anatomically shaped helmets, here's a particularly well crafted (sadly also very incomplete) example, again from Filippo Negroli.

The cheek-plates are suspected to be Victorian restorations.

Housed at the MET.
metmuseum.org/art/collection…

We've seen plate, plated-mail, and now here's an all'antica armor made to mimick a roman soldier with maille armor.

Notice the pattern drawn with the gilded rings.

Housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
khm.at/en/object/3732…

As if the suit wasn't impressive enough on it's own, there's also a full maille barding to match it.

Here's a picture I took myself, as you can probably tell by the poor quality of it.

Sometimes the line on what is All'Antica armor and what is simply Renaissance era armor with some period motiffs can be blurry.

Here's a suit from the Musée de l'Armée with scaled embossed all over it's surface.

Note that the cuirass is fully articulated from top to bottom.

Speaking of scales, here's a particularly fascinating breastplate.

It's made of steel, but the surface has been covered with actual scales carved from bone.

The Hermitage museum currently dates it to the 6th century. I pressume they meant to type 16th c.

Here's a heavily decorated example from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

The armor is matched to quite a few weapons including a pike for the hunt, as well as a rotella shield.

The surface is of course covered in plenty of classical motiffs.
khm.at/en/object/3751…

Finally, here's a closer look at the details on this armor and the matching shield.

Housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
khm.at/en/object/3751…

I hope you guys enjoy these kind of compilation threads.

I don't know wether this will become a regular thing or not, but I assume it's quite helpful to publish these reference-dumps from time to time.

In a future I will talk about All'Antica armor in more detail.