i'm looking for any images, descriptions or theories anyone might have on brightly painted harnesses and helmets used in the late 15th and early 16thC so I can put together a reasonable database on this style.

Black munitions is ok but anything about colours, flames, heraldry, chequerboard, suns/starburst, stripes or symbols of any kind would be much appreciated

unfortunately its something i have read about but you rarely find intact (thanks to Victorian era polishing :( )

If I can find any good examples I would like to try painting parts of an infantry harness myself

What the heck kind of helmet is that? It looks exceptionally crude compared to the rest of the harness. That's an interesting early-1500s armour - the very long fauld definitely reflects the age of it.

The helmet is a type of sallet which appears on German armours from circa 1500-1510. unlike the more typic 15th century sallet in which the the visor only covers the nose and middle of the face, this type covers the mouth and chin as well. There is a line drawing of one in Claude Blair's "European Armour circa 1066 to circa 1700" (No. 122, page 202), Only Blair describes it as a 'close-helmet'.

Hi there!

Perhaps these pictures will help a bit to deal with the helm.
I also suffer the same problem, there are some pictures, drawings with blackened, coloured armour, but I havent found any still existing coloured armour from the late 15th century Germans yet (except the "black" sallets), but I will not give it up! :)

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From The Wallace Collection. All German, ranging from 1500-1515.

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Whoa - that first one...way cool! Thanks for posting those pics, Sean!

Edge and Paddock's book has an example of a painted sallet on p. 99. It is dated c.1490.

Whilst I have not seen any other examples of painted armour, in terms of anything other than Helmets (and the picture already posted here), I believe you may find an earlier thread on here interesting in terms of the designs used.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=2700

I'll carry on looking though!

Black and white painted barbuta from the "Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight"

One of the best painted armours is the garniture belonging to Mikolaus Radziwill of Lithuania.

[ Linked Image ]

[ Linked Image ]

The painted sallet in that thread above also seems like it may have been part of that garniture:

[ Linked Image ]

This seems to be a jousting sallet or "rennhut" made for the joust in the open field with sharp lances or "scharfrennen." You can tell from the reinforced, thickened bottom portion with the lifting peg. There was almost certainly a heavy grandguard that went over the front.

ca. 1490-1500 - 'sallet from Ulm', South German, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Austria:

Care of a Flikr album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13973564@N07/2044025156/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/2043...otostream/[/url]

It's late so I'll be quick.

Here's some examples.

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Cabasset, circa 1600, Wallace Collection
Copyright © The Wallace Collection

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Circa 1480-1500, sa vient d'Autriche

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Painted Sallet

That painted sallet matches the pattern on the surviving garniture of Prince Mikolas Radziwill. It appears to be a "rennhut," a heavy reinforced sallet for a joust with sharp lances, and I am certain there was, at one point, a matching bevor and grandguard that accompanied it. That enameled garniture is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful of all time, and the intricate strapwork on it is very "Eastern" looking - very unique.

I don't know where this is located. Any info would be appreciated.

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Circa 1485-90

Adam, the Nikolaus Radziwill IV harness is not painted, per se. As you mentioned in your second post, it is enameled, but the process is much more involved than painting could ever be. The surface of the metal is etched and gilt, silvered and enameled with pigment-laden metallic dust.

The sallet is indeed part of the garniture, which is now spread throughout Europe. I believe it is currently housed in a Swedish national museum? The form of the sallet was archaic by the 1550s, but Northern jousting harnesses continued to use such sallets well into the late 16th century as elements of what are most commonly known as "Saxon" harnesses today, due to the order by a Saxon duke of some 20-odd matching suits for a tournament in the 1590s. It would be awesome to see if the original cuirass reinforcement incorporated the same detailed enamel as the rest of the harness, which would seem unreasonable given its purpose. A floating bevor was unlikely, but rather one that was incorporated into the chest piece.

I was meaning to write a report on the garniture last year when my computer with most of the information I'd collected suddently died on me and I have yet to properly retrieve the work. I had the luxury of seeing the main portion of the harness at the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna, and the work was impeccable. Lochner certainly did an admirable job creating that eastern-inspired garniture. I only wish more of the entire panoply survived through to modernity. With any luck, some private collector will throw a newly discovered piece of it on the market someday!

-Gregory

That Wallace cabasset gives me ideas. The lion looks like one of my cats. :D