Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/266

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EUROPEAN ARMOUR AND ARMS

are executed in gold hatching. In the interior of the shield is shown a battle of horse and foot soldiers being fought in a field of standing corn. This beautiful work of art, which must have been produced under the influence of some Italian painter of the period of Giulio dei Giannuzzi or Polidoro Lanzani, must, from its very fragile nature, have been intended solely for parade use. A very similar shield is in the collection of the Duke of Norfolk, and others are to be seen in several of the public and private collections abroad.

Fig. 1310. Wooden shield covered with leather

Italian, about 1560. Ex collections: Londesborough and Spitzer
Now Dino Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York

Many convex wooden bucklers painted with classical subjects in gold on a black ground were made at Naples, for in the Inventario del Duque d'Albuquerque (Madrid, 1883, pages 75-76) we find the entries: "A round Neapolitan shield, all gilt with many Roman subjects. . . . Another round Neapolitan shield all painted and gilt with a battle. . . . Another round shield of fig tree wood with Neapolitan painting in gold and black."