the Vienna Armoury it is stated to have been formerly the property of the Emperor Charles V; but there is no evidence to establish this attribution. In the Wallace Collection there is an embossed parade casque that in the official catalogue of that armoury is described by the author as being Italian; more recent examination and fresh comparisons have, however, convinced him that it is German both in workmanship and design (No. 638, Fig. 1257). It is a far more solid head-piece than the one we have just alluded to; while the most elaborate overlay and inlay play a great part in its enrichment. The skull-piece has a high roped comb. The umbril, which is part of the same piece, projects for some distance over the face, as in the case of most helmets constructed on classical lines. The cheek-*pieces are hinged. The surface decoration is divided in the following manner. On either side of the comb is an oval panel, containing on the one side a composition of Leda and the Swan, and on the reverse Venus nursing Cupid. Abutting on these medallions are panels of musical and military trophies; both the groundwork of these and of the central medallions are plated with gold and minutely finished with a tooled annular design. The edge of the comb is shaped as the bodies of spirally intertwined snakes, the heads of which appear over the umbril; the bodies are engraved with scales and plated with silver. On either side of the skull-piece are upright oval panels, one containing the subject of Horatius Cocles on the Tiber Bridge facing the army of Porsenna, the other that of Metius Curtius leaping into the pit. In the triangular panels at the sides of the central composition are trophies of Roman armour. In the centre of the umbril is the head of Medusa with griffins at the sides; the same ornaments are repeated on the neck-guard; though the mask is that of a woman in repose, with Grecian head-dress. The ear-pieces are embossed with griffins, but they do not belong to the casque. The work of this most highly wrought helmet is embossed and chased, and the surface russeted; thick gold and silver plating are much used as an enrichment. The fine details of the armour trophies, of the figures, and of the bordering to the panels, etc., are carried out in gold and silver damascening with which most of the russeted surface is relieved. The date of the helmet is about 1570. Sir Richard Wallace purchased this casque in 1882 from Mr. Durlacher, who acquired it from a collection in Munich. It was sold to Sir Richard Wallace for the then high price of £2,300.
When the author adversely criticizes the art of the German armourer as the second half of the XVIth century progresses, he is alluding to the
