Page 159 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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CABASSET OF FERDINAND OF ARAGON
late i$th-early i6th century, Aragonese (?)
steel, gilded copper
height 29 (n /s); width 24.5 (9 /s); depth 32.5 (i2 /4J
5
3
3
references: Marchesi 1849, 2-3; Valencia de Don
Juan 1898, 127; Mann 1932, 296-297, 304; Vienna
1936, 22; Vienna 1976, 118-119
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Hofjagd-und
Rustkammer

Three half-sun marks are engraved on the side of
this bell-shaped helmet. Since the beginning of
the nineteenth century these markings have been
attributed to the previously unstudied armory in
Calatayud near Saragossa. The smooth helmet
inclines slightly toward a point at the back. This
incline ends in a small cross. The helmet is
encircled by a ribbonlike headband of gilt copper
with the engraved inscription in hoc signo vincit
(in this sign you shall conquer), on a punched
ground. The letters are separated by two lobed
leaves and a similar decorative band, covered with
vegetal climbers, adorns the brim. Crowned car-
touches with the emblem of Granada are affixed
to the middle of the forehead and on the nape. In
the front another cartouche with what is now only
a partial cross is affixed above the one with the
emblem. The cartouche in back was topped at
some later point with a plume holder. The decora-
tive inscription, undoubtedly based on Moorish
design, alludes to the conquest of Granada by Fer-
dinand, as do the emblems. The word cabasset
comes from the Spanish cabeza (head) and repre-
sents a local variation of the helmet. The receding
brim and the sharp ridge from front to back are
typical for the cabasset. C.B.-S.

edges of "sewn designs" and free-formed branches would no longer have fit the growing Charles and
of pomegranates. For etching and silver decoration the project_was abandoned. On 12 March 1512 the
the armor was sent to Augsburg, where the best chamberlain at Innsbruck informed the emperor
artists for this work were to be found. The visor that a vest and pants of the young Charles had
displayed here is a contemporary piece thought to been sent to the master armorer Konrad Seusen-
be by Seusenhofer, but it did not originally belong hofer as a basis of measure for the new armor. At
to the armor. the same time Maximilian i ordered two addi-
Maximilian i had many presentation armors tional parade armors in this style for his English
fashioned in his Innsbruck armory. In 1511 he relation Henry vm. At least a helmet, now in the
commissioned the armorer Hans Rabeiler (active Tower of London (inv. no. iv 22), remains of this
1501-1519) to make a body armor for his grandson gift, which the brother of Konrad Seusenhofer,
Charles, which was never completed. It was evi- Hans, delivered to Antwerp in April 1514 for its
dently learned that the armor then in progress journey to England. C.B.-S.

158 CIRCA 1492