were remodelled and despoiled of their ornaments. Three and a half centuries of vandalism and of lack of archaeological interest have so effectively banished into obscurity any specimen that escaped contemporary destruction that to bring to light to-day an unknown XVth century head-piece is a discovery much rarer than the re-discovery of some work from the brush of one of the old masters.
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Fig. 394. The obverse of Pisano's medal of Lodovico di Gonzaga
Showing the crested salade
Whether a crest was ever worn on the salade in the field is somewhat a matter of speculation. Nearly every specimen of salade that we have examined has in the ridge of its skull-piece a slot-like hole, to which some form of crest or ornament could have been attached; but it is now impossible to say if the crest was actually worn in battle or only for purposes of pageantry. In the Uccello battle-piece (vol. i, Fig. 238) in the National Gallery, very fanciful shapes can be seen attached in the form of cresting to the armets, but not on the salades, though several are seen in use. In this picture the crests on the armets do not appear to have any armorial significance; for their shapes are unusual. They may, however, have served to identify the wearer. We are, however, bound to admit that in the portrayal of the battle subjects so often seen on the front panels of the Italian cassoni of the latter half of the XVth century many of the warriors wear the Celata crested, much in the same manner as the armets are crested in the Uccello battle-piece. On the obverse of Pisano's medal of Lodovico III di Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (Fig. 394), an equestrian knight in full armour is represented wearing a salade of North Italian form, upon which is a trimming of feathers surmounted by a great spherical object that might be taken for a crest. In the Louvre is a drawing by the same artist, evidently a sketch for the more famous medal of Alphonso V of Aragon, King of Naples, in which, behind the profile view of the Duke, is a well-drawn Italian salade, showing its straps for attachment, and surmounted by a crest in the form of a bat (Fig. 395). It is, however, chiefly in German armorial painting that we see the mantling and cresting of the salade carried to excess and to a degree that in actual usage would be impossible. As an instance we reproduce from an illustration a salade bearing the enormous crest of Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, showing the lambrequin
