{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O97507"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O97507/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BC0297/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BC0297/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BC0297","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KE2599","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O97507/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O97507","accessionNumber":"M.144-1921","objectType":"Breastplate","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Of all the possessions of the sixteenth century nobleman, none spoke more powerfully of his honour, wealth and status than his armour. This breastplate is designed for a youth and is possibly part of a series of suits presented to the future Philip III of Spain in the 1580s. As part of a matching suit of armour it would have made a spectacular display at pageants and tournaments.\r\n\r\nBreastplates formed the centrepiece of defensive armours, usually carrying the central decorative motifs and protecting the body's vital organs. Armours for tournaments and parades were decorated according to the latest fashion and their cost made them the preserve only of the very wealthy. This pointed breastplate closely resembles the 'peascod' style of clothing popular among late 16th century nobles.\r\n\r\nDuring the mid-16th century a new fashion emerged in Europe for arms and armour based on the forms found in classical art. High relief embossing and rich gold damascening decorated parade armour <i>alla romana antica</i> (in the ancient roman style). The decoration of this breastplate is in the style of the workshop of Lucio Piccinino (born around 1535, active around 1570-1589) of Milan. Piccinino was an armour embosser and damascener. He had, claimed Paolo Morigia in his <i>La Nobilita' di Milano</i>, published in 1595, “in his ornamentation of iron in relief with figures, animals and grotesque masks, etc., and likewise in his damascened work, produced masterpieces which are among the most choice and precious.”","physicalDescription":"Steel breastplate for a youth, of peascod shape, embossed and damascened with gold and silver, and partly gilt, decorated at the top with a Medusa's head flanked by figures of victory blowing trumpets. Below this are two figures of captive youths back to back resting on an arch beneath which is a figure of Mars standing on a bracket supported by two satyrs resting on a ram's head. Below this is a cartouche with a small figure of Apollo. On either side are vertical bands with garlands, strapwork and masks alternating with bands of figures with backgrounds ornamented with minute arabesques.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Piccinino, Lucio","id":"A12468"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":"possibly"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"steel","id":"AAT133751"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"}],"techniques":[{"text":"embossing","id":"AAT53826"},{"text":"forging","id":"AAT54033"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"damascening","id":"AAT54019"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Steel, embossed and damascened with gold and silver, partly gilt","categories":[{"text":"Arms & Armour","id":"THES48992"},{"text":"Ceremonial objects","id":"THES48981"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Royalty","id":"THES48899"},{"text":"Europeana Fashion Project","id":"THES265804"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006BC0297","2017KE2599"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"62 (VA)","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"CA19","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Breastplate","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Milan","id":"x29007"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1585","earliest":"1580-01-01","latest":"1589-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by D. M. Currie","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"45.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"positioned upright","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"33.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at rest","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"33.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"23.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"positioned upright","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"30.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at rest","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This breastplate is strikingly similar to several suits in the Royal Armoury, Madrid. Many armours in Madrid were broken and removed during the early 19th century and other sold. The breastplate was subsequently in the Bernal Collection Sale of 1855, lot 2420,  whose catalogue stated that 'This remarkably fine breast-plate formed part of the armour of Philip IV of Spain and was given to Don Sebastian, from whose representatives Mr. Pratt obtained it, and sold it to Mr. Bernal.' \r\n\r\nThe most similar suit of armour at Madrid however, is one made for Philip III (r.1598-1601) when a child, and presented to him by the Duke of Terranova, Governor of Milan (B4-5). However, this breastplate is not an extra piece from this suit. It does not disprove the tradition that Philip IV (b. 1605) may have worn it.\r\n\r\nThe breastplate was later in the Londesborough Collection from which it was sold at Christie's on the 4th July 1888 (lot 304).It was later in the collection of Mr David M. Currie who bequeathed them to the Museum in 1921.\n\nHistorical significance: The breastplate is remarkable for the richness and variety of its decoration, something for which the armourers of Milan were renowned. The whole surface is covered with magnificent chased and damascened (inlaid gold) ornament that includes figures of Mars, Fame and Victory. The breastplate was part of a parade armour, rather than a protective battle suit, and would have created a spectacular display as part of a matching suit of armour. Its possible association with the Royal Armoury in Madrid, and the possibility that they were part of a suit worn by either Philip III or Phillip IV of Spain, puts it in the top echelons of aristocratic patronage. The Spanish nobility, particularly the royal family were the best customers for the Italian armourers in the later 16th century and the decline of Spain as a force after 1600 seriously impacted on the armourers' markets.\r\n\r\nThe decoration is in the style of the workshop of Lucio Piccinino (born around 1535, active around 1570-1589), one of the great armourers of Milan. This attibution depends stylistically upon a suit in Vienna (A.1132) made for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, being correctly identified with one referred to by Morigia's <i>Nobilitá di Milano</i> in 1595 as having been made for him by Piccinino.\r\n\r\nLucio Piccinino was an armour embosser and damascener. His work represents one of the last last great flourishes of the armourer's art before heavy musket shot put paid to the all-over dress armours. Piccinino had, claimed Paolo Morigia in his <i>La Nobilita' di Milano</i> published in 1595 \"in his ornamentation of iron in relief with figures, animals and grotesque masks, etc. and likewise in his damascened work, produced masterpieces which are among the most choice and precious.\" Piccinino made armour for princes and kings including a parade armour for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1545-1592), now in the Kunsthistorischesmuseum in Vienna.\r\n\r\nThe manufacture of arms and armour was for centuries Milan's most famous export. The industry in Milan was centred on a few workshops run by families specialising in armour of great beauty and artistic skill for a wealthy, aristocratic market. Along with Missaglia, the Negroli, Giovan Battista Zarabaglia and Pompeo della Cesa, Lucio Piccinino was the most important.\n\n<u>Provenance</u>\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"Of all the possessions of the sixteenth century nobleman, none spoke more powerfully of his honour, wealth and status than his armour. \r\n\r\nBreastplates formed the centrepiece of defensive armours, usually carrying the central decorative motifs and protecting the body's vital organs. Armours for tournaments and parades were decorated according to the latest fashion and their cost made them the preserve only of the very wealthy. This pointed breastplate closely resembles the 'peascod' style of clothing popular among late 16th century nobles.\r\n\r\nDuring the mid-16th century a new fashion emerged in Europe for arms and armour based on the forms found in classical art. High relief embossing and rich gold damascening decorated parade armour <i>alla romana antica</i> (in the ancient roman style). Armour was commissioned by Renaissance kings and noblemen who projected their power and status by portraying themselves as figures from classical mythology. This example is a vituoso piece of Renaissance 'antique' armour.","briefDescription":"Breastplate a youth, steel, embossed and damascened with gold and silver, possibly by Lucio Piccinino, Milan, Italy, ca.1585","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hayward, J. F., <u>European Armour</u>, London, 1965, cat. 32"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Laking, Sir Guy Francis, <u>A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries</u>, G. Bell and Sons, London 1921, Vol.III, p.339."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Grancsay, S.V., \"Lucio Piccinino, Master Armourer of the Renaissance\", <u>Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin</u>, April 1964, pp. 519-536 (mentioned p. 522)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pyhrr, Stuart W. and Godoy, Jose-A., <u>Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries</u>, Exhibition Catalogue, 08 October 1998 - 17 Januray 1999, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, passim."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kelly, F.M., \"The Vienna Armoury\", <u>The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs</u>, Vol. 37, No. 213, December 1920, pp. 310-311, 314-315"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Patterson, Angus, <u>Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire</u>, V&A Publishing, London, 2009, ISBN  9781851775811, p. 82, ill."},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37 ","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Apollo","id":"N138"},{"text":"Mars","id":"N57"},{"text":"Victory","id":"N30"},{"text":"Medusa","id":"N86"}],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"strapwork","id":"AAT10200"},{"text":"masks (design elements)","id":"x30275"},{"text":"arabesques","id":"AAT10206"},{"text":"satyrs","id":"x35233"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.144-1921"],"accessionNumberNum":"144","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1921,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU3387","2019LV2613"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2004-03-31","availableToBook":false}}