The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Armor for Man and Horse with Völs-Colonna Arms

Armor for Man and Horse with Völs-Colonna Arms

c. 1575

Did You Know?

The Vols-Colonna family crest is found seven times in prominent locations on this armor set for horse and rider.

Description

A knight depended on his horse both as a weapon and a means of defense. He therefore had to take great care to protect his charger. From the 1100s on, knights first covered their steeds in trappings of fabric and later of mail. By around 1400, full steel plate armor for horses was complete. It is possible that this armor made for both man and horse originally belonged to a "garniture," an armor with multiple customized exchange elements that could convert the basic suit to various field and sporting uses. With different pieces of the garniture attached, this suit could have been worn either in battle or in various tournament games. The total combined weight of both the man's and horse's armor is 114 pounds. The etched decoration of this armor is of a type that became fashionable in northern Italy during the late 1500s. It consists of ornamental bands of etched figures, animals, portrait busts, and armor trophies. In addition, a coat of arms is represented seven times in different places—the center of the breastplate and blackplate, the front and back of each pauldron (shoulder defense), and the center of the peytral (horse's breastplate). The coat of arms is that of the Colonna family quartered with another, still unidentified family. It probably belonged to an unknown member of the Völs-Colonna family from the South Tyrol, now part of northern Italy.
  • Schloss Prösels, Fiè allo Sciliar, Italy
    ?-1832
    Town Hall, Bolzano, Italy
    1832-
    Prince Peter Soltykoff (active 1840-1861), Paris, France
    -1913
    William H. Rigs (1837-1928), Paris, France, donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
    1913-1964
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1913-64), New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1964-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dean, Bashford. "Mr. Riggs as a Collector of Armor." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 9, no. 3 (1914). p. 72 www.jstor.org
    Dean, Bashford. Handbook of Arms and Armor European and Oriental: Including the William H. Riggs Collection. New York: The Metropolitain Museum of Art, 1921. p. 72
    Stone, George Cameron. A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times, Together with Some Closely Related Subjects. Portland, Me: Southworth Press, 1934. p. 96, fig. 123, no. 4
    Artley, A. S., M. Monroe, and H. M. Robinson. Open Highways Book 6. Book 6. Sacramento: California State Deparment of Education, 1966. p. 233
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. pp. 20, 57, 162; cat. no. 6
    Olsen, Kirstin. All Things Shakespeare. An Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's World 2 2. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2002. p. 44
    Bolzano (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy). Bolzano 1700-1800: la città e le arti. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2004. p. 77, fig. 9
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.
    Carrara, Elena. "“Mon Cher Ami Et Frère D’armes”: Letters from Costantino Ressman to William Riggs, Collectors of Arms and Armor in Nineteenth-Century Paris." Metropolitan Museum Journal 47, no. 1 (2012). p. 169 www.jstor.org
    Gertsman, Elina, and Stephen N. Fliegel. Collectors, Commissioners, Curators: Studies in Medieval Art for Stephen N. Fliegel. Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter ; [Kalamazoo, Michigan] : Medieval Institute Publications, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 133-134, Fig. 7.1.
  • Armor Court Reinstallation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Armor for Man and Horse with Völs-Colonna Arms|url=false|author=|year=c. 1575|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.88