Unusual shield type -- myArmoury.com

Michael S. Rivet · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 5:29 am Post subject: Unusual shield type

I know the role of art in arms and armor study is a complicated topic involving the artist's intentions, his expectations of his audience, the need to differentiate characters, and so on. So normally when I come across some unexpected weapon in period art I smile and take note but don't give it too much significance.

When I see the same thing pop up over and over again, though, I start to think maybe this is a real thing I should know more about. Case in point: Deeply curved, full-body, elliptical or oval shields wielded by armored figures in art from the 14th and 15th centuries. I've attached (or attempted to attach) two images showing this type. I know I've seen at least one other piece of art depicting a fully armored soldier, on foot, wielding a very similar shield but, alas, I did not save the image.

The first image is from 1410 to 1412 according to my very limited documentation and the latter is 14th century and, I believe, French.

Without having a name for this type of shield, I have no idea what to search for. Is anyone familiar with this type of shield? Are there extant examples? Documents describing them? Does the community have a term for this weapon?

Shahril Dzulkifli · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 7:14 am Post subject: Unusual shield type

I have no clue on that type of shield.
Never seen a real one, though.

Jeffrey Faulk · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 8:48 am Post subject:

If I'm not mistaken, I would say that's simply a representation of a dished kite shield with a boss. These were common-ish back in the Norman period as the boss was a holdover from the first millennium,

What is the context of the pictures? That is, the manuscripts they come from? If they're portraying historical events, someone may have decided to try and depict a more 'antique' version of the contemporary shields.

Matthew Amt · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 11:07 am Post subject:

Tim Jones · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 11:28 am Post subject:

I've seen them all over the place in manuscripts, but never any extant examples. I'll do some digging into the context, but I don't think they are seen solely in depictions of historical events.

Tim Jones · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 11:40 am Post subject:

I've just found this image. The reason I find it interesting is that the shield in the fore has the same decoration as those seen in the Maciejowski bible. There are two possible options:
Option 1:
They were in fact copying older texts, and just screwing it up. Just think about the images of elephants, which actually got more and more fantastical as time went on.
Option 2:
It is another branch in the evolution of the heater shield. I think I have seen just as many of the oddly shaped ones as "standard" models, and sometimes they appear in the same images.

I'd love it to be another type of actual shield that everyone has simply ignored, however, what we want to have happened is rarely what actually happened - this is something the Victorians failed to understand.....

Matt Easton · Posted: Wed 18 Mar, 2015 1:18 pm Post subject:

I think it's safe to say that these existed - they turn up in a LOT of 14th and 15th century art from a wide area of Western Europe. I don't think lack of surviving examples should cast any doubt on them, as so few shields survive from this period, relatively.

Iagoba Ferreira · Posted: Thu 19 Mar, 2015 1:06 am Post subject:

I agree with Matt Easton.

Currently I'm struggling with Iberian shields terminology and typology of the XVth century, and there are about a dozen types without known surviving examples. I suspect that this type may be the "lesser pavises" so often mentioned.

If you are looking for more of them, depictions of sieges often show them used while going up a ladder, hold by the left hand.
http://www.soldiers-of-misfortune.com/galleri...sieges.htm