- [Fig. 1257. Burgonet
Probably German workmanship under Italian influence, about 1570 Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, No. 638)]
casque thus enriched is in the Imperial Armoury, Vienna (Fig. 1256). It is a representative German parade head-piece characteristically over-*loaded with decoration. Confused battle scenes, strap- and scrollwork, and inscriptions seem to struggle with one another for supremacy in the decorative scheme; with the result that the enrichment appears as a confused mass of ornamentation, contravening every canon of art by its over-*abundance and lack of a principal theme. The iron, through having to be
fired so many times in the process of carrying out the elaborate embossing, has lost much of its fine elastic quality. It is also affected in colour, with the result that where a bright surface is exposed it is of a leaden appearance. In the general aspect of this casque a want of solidity is manifest, lending it the appearance of being made out of sheet iron rather than having been hammered out of the solid metal. However, despite these criticisms there is much to admire in this helmet, an elaborate example of an open casque made by an unknown German armourer of about 1570. In the older catalogues of
