Hello all,

I had a couple questions about this relief (if that's not the proper term for this artifact please correct me so I don't make such a mistake again).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bullets4brains/14408888563/

1) Does anybody have any links to a picture of the whole thing, as opposed to just this part?
2) I heard it's from the 1170s. Is that correct? If not what is the time frame / place of origin for this artifact?
3) It appears this figure is holding a weapon that has a blade like the later falcions but the handle of a Maciejowski falchion ("chopper"). Is that a correct assessment?

Thank you.

-Skriletz

I am not sure what relief is this but I am sure that this one comes from the Middle Ages.

its the bas relief from Milan's Porta Romana, a sculpture made in remembrance of the rebuilding of the town in 1171 after its destruction by Emperor Frederic Barbarossa.

A better image from wikimedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...b-2008.jpg

I think its very interesting to that this shows the details of the characters, one of the characters you can see has a little heraldry on his shield.

Corey,

As you may already know, heraldry only begins in the 12th century, perhaps at the very earliest in the first half of the century, and starts to become more common in the second half. Chretien de Troyes' writings make reference to it, but he was writing circa 1170 to 1190. It's difficult to identify at what point 12th century manuscript artwork begins to represent heraldric designs on shields as opposed to decorations or patterns, but by the 1190s, we do find unambiguous examples of heraldric representations.