Kunz Lochner was one of the few Nuremberg armorers of the mid-sixteenth century to achieve an international reputation. His patrons included the Holy Roman Emperor, the dukes of Saxony, and the king of Poland. This man's armor bears the mark of Nuremberg; Lochner's personal mark, a rampant lion; and the date 1548. The armor was originally part of a small garniture that included exchange elements for field and tournament use. Restorations include the cuirass and the gauntlets.

An associated horse armor also in the Metropolitan Museum's collection (acc. no. 32.69) bears only the Nuremberg mark but can be attributed to Lochner on stylistic grounds. The elaborately embossed and etched decoration of the peytral (chest defense) includes an abbreviated inscription that may be interpreted: 1548 K[rist] I[ch] T[rau] G[anz] V[nd] G[ar] H[ans] E[rnst] H[erzog] Z[u] Sachsen (1548 In Christ I trust wholly, Hans [Johann] Ernst, Duke of Saxony). Duke Johann Ernst (1521–1553) may have commissioned the horse armor for his attendance at the Diet of Augsburg, a political assembly of the German nobility called in 1548 by Charles V to deal with the crisis of the Reformation.

• Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

  Marking: On the helmet: traces of the Nuremberg mark on the ventail;
  
  On the gorget: Nuremberg and Kunz Lochner marks on the front plate; also an N within a pearled border on the interior;
  
  On the right pauldron (shoulder defense): traces of the Nuremberg and Kunz Lochner marks on the upper lame; also an N within a pearled border on the interior;
  
  On the left pauldron (shoulder defense): Kunz Lochner mark on the upper lame; also an N within a pearled border on the interior;
  
  On the arm defenses: traces of the Nuremberg and Kunz Lochner marks on the upper lames.

• Provenance

  Ex. coll.: Princes of Liechtenstein.

• Timeline of Art History (2000–present)
  Thematic Essays

  Arms and Armor in Renaissance Europe

  Timelines

  Central Europe (including Germany), 1400–1600 A.D.
• MetPublications
  "Arms and Armor from the Permanent Collection": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 49, no. 1 (Summer, 1991) (1991)

  Of Arms and Men: Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan, 1912–2012
  [adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 70, no. 1 (Summer, 2012)] (2012)