March 19, 2006

The Duke of Urbino's armor

Urbino_armor

Just thought I'd put up pictures of the spectacular set of armor that I came across. During the Renaissance, Filippo Negroli of Milan was famous for the armors he designed and sculpted. Nobles in Italy all wanted his embossed creations and the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, had at least two sets.

Urbino_helmet

This particular one is well-known because of its helmet which is fronted by a monster mask. Its cheekpieces are shaped as flying batwings and the mask looks like a eagle-dragon hybrid ready to devour the next living thing it sees. The helmet has fangs, horns, even a lizard with scales and webbed feet. In comparison, the breastplate is less startling, though the design is actually formed by a pair of large batwings. And those round shapes within the wings? They're humanoid eyes.

Posted by Monoceros at March 19, 2006 5:59 PM