GERMAN PAGEANT SHIELDS
Next we may mention the large series of targets of wood covered with leather which can be found in most public and many private collections. The example we illustrate (Fig. 1310) is in the Dino Collection, Metropolitan Museum of New York, and was formerly in those of Lord Londesborough and M. Spitzer. It is of wood, covered upon both sides with cuir bouilli, embossed and surface tooled, which even now is in nearly pristine condition. The middle portion is occupied by a large medallion, upon which Perseus is represented delivering Andromeda from the Monster. This medallion is surrounded by four smaller ones, in which are to be seen Mercury, Marcus Curtius, Fortune, and a horseman. The whole groundwork is ornamented with grotesque figures and arabesques admirably drawn. The inside of the shield is as richly decorated, and, what is still more uncommon, is as finely preserved as is the face. Upon it are to be seen two round medallions with figures—Peace and Truth—and a small oval medallion representing a woman's head and a painted heraldic scroll. The groundwork is entirely covered with arabesques and grotesque figures. Both the arm straps and the grip are also of tooled leather. This shield is of Italian workmanship and dates from about 1560.
GERMAN PAGEANT SHIELDS
It is regrettable that the only pageant shield signed by the great German armourer, Desiderius Kolman, still in existence to record his glory as a worker in embossed armour, should have quitted his hands in an unfinished condition. This fact we note in the absence from the shield of the rivet holesby which the lining could be attached and by which the indispensable arm loop could be fastened (Fig. 1311). It was doubtless the intention of Desiderius Kolman that this shield should bear witness to his work as an embosser of metal. He introduces in the border ornaments a series of bear, wild boar, stag-hunting, and bull-baiting scenes. The whole design seems intended to suggest an allegory of his own triumph over his Italian competitors, he himself being represented in the form of a bull which is vanquishing a huntsman on whose shield is inscribed the name negrol, a direct reference, of course, to the famous Milanese armourers. His superiority in this case over the Milanese school existed, however, only in his own imagination; for the confused and elaborated
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