Page 158 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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Konrad Seusenhofer
Innsbruck, active 1500-1517
BOY'S DRESS ARMOR OF ARCHDUKE
CHARLES, SUBSEQUENTLY CHARLES v

1512-1514
steel, silver gilt; velvet, leather
height 150 (59]; width 70 (2^/2)
references: Primisser 1819, 52-53, no. 6; Sacken
II
I
1855, 5//-/' Sacken #59/ 16, pi. 8; Boeheim 1894,
2-3; Boeheim iSyya, 25; Boeheim iSyyb, 2$6ff.;
Vienna 1936, 42; Thomas 1949, 37//-; Innsbruck
1954, 68-69, no - 62; Vienna 1958, no. 87; Vienna
1959, no. 622; Thomas-Gamber-Schedelmann 1963,
p/. i6a; Thomas-Camber 1976, 118-119; Vienna
1988, 395; Vienna 1990, 12#//.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Hofjagd-und
Rustkammer

This armor, which does not appear in the old armor could only be his creation. He undoubtedly arched sections were necessary for riding and
inventories, was catalogued in the Ambras collec- enjoyed imitating such a work of fashion in steel, could be closed with inserts, now unfortunately
tion in 1819 and attributed to Philip i. The valid- but it required unusual skill to do so. The armor is missing, for foot combat.
ity of this traditional attribution was questioned patterned after the pleated skirt of the Dutch The closely fitted vest, incised with half moons
(Sacken 1855) and it was later definitively proved man's costume, the so-called "long-cloak," which and with etched slits, emerges from under the
that only the young Charles v (1478-1506) could has appliqued borders. To imitate this, recessed wide cone-shaped shoulders. This motif resembles
have worn this dress armor (Boeheim 1899^. bands were affixed on the front and back, on the the then fashionable Landsknecht costumes,
Maximilian i (1459-1519) ordered this magnifi- pleated skirt, the shoulders and the knees of the which reveal the slitted puff sleeves of the colored
cent armor for his twelve-year-old grandson in armor. Originally, black velvet was the back- lining underneath. Partially gilded, partially
1512 from his court armorer, Konrad Seusenhofer, ground for these gilded interlaced bands. The blackened etching in the style of the Augsburg
who had run the court armory since its creation in emblems of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the master Daniel Hopfer the Elder decorates the
1504. He had an unusually gifted, versatile, and cross of Saint Andrew, and the flint and sparks of other pieces; foliage, star flowers, creatures of
imaginative artistic personality, and this type of Burgundy are constantly repeated. The cut-out fable, and putti on a punched ground accompany

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 157