Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/52

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EUROPEAN ARMOUR AND ARMS

and applied bronze-gilt work, we illustrate. The finer of the two (Fig. 351), which was formerly in the Gatterburg Morosini Collection, Venice, has adornments which might be as early as the XVIth century. The second (Fig. 352), now in the collection of Prince Ladislaus Odescalchi of Rome, is equally rich in appearance; but we consider that its bronze-gilt adornments must have been added for pageant purposes early in the XVIIth century. At Parham, in the late Lord Zouche's heterogeneous collection, are two good Italian salades, the more solid of which we should judge to be of Venetian make, dating from about 1470. The other is especially elaborate, being

Fig. 345. From the Triumphal Arch of Alphonso of Aragon
Erected at the Castel Nuovo, Naples, in 1470

covered with crimson velvet upon which is applied a design in bronze gilt pierced à jour with a true arabesque scroll. The ornamentation is contemporary with the helmet itself, though curiously Moorish in character. This head-piece we should judge from its enrichments belongs to the closing years of the XVth century. The mention of this helmet brings to our mind the superb example in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, made by a member of the Negroli family towards the close of the XVth century (No. D 12, 1898 catalogue) (Fig. 353). The whole surface of this beautiful salade, the general outline of which closely follows those of the helmets of which we have been speaking, is overlaid with plaques of silver nielloed and incised with ornamentation of pronounced Hispano-Arabian origin.

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