Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/306

Fig. 1045. Suit of armour for fighting on foot

Italian (Milanese), School of Missaglia, dated 1515. Made probably for Giuliano II or Lorenzo II de' Medici G 179, Musée d'Artillerie, Paris

Gonfaloniere of the Republic in 1513, and was invested by his uncle, Leo X, with the Duchy of Urbino in 1516, when he was twenty-four years of age. We may therefore consider that the suit was made for either one or the other of these two Medici. Looking at this suit, and the next to be described, the reader cannot fail to appreciate the great likeness both in constructional lines and form which they bear to the second of the suits in the Tower of London credited to the ownership of Henry VIII (ante, page 224, Fig. 1018). In the case of this suit (Fig. 1045) the edge of the gauntlet cuffs fits beneath the edge of the vambrace in the same manner, and similar, too, is the juncture of the jamb and solleret. The tonnlet about the loins and gluteal muscles is equally protective; but it fastens down the front by means of hooks and catches. Certain differences, however, there are between this harness and that in the Tower. In the case of the Medici suit the encircling pauldrons are complete, and the head-*piece is smaller and rather of the armet type. The helmet is, however, unusually protective; since the six upright apertures on either side of the mezail could be closed with a sliding shutter. The helmet is attached to the gorget by its hollow-*roped base fitting the top rim of the plate. The decoration of this fine suit beyond its upright bands of slashed ornaments consists in broad dividing channels etched with a form of damask design of pure North Italian origin.