The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Three Hungarian-style Shields

Art Object

A Visit to the Armor Galleries

In the 1920s the Metropolitan began to explore filmmaking as part of its educational program, and in 1924 it released two films about arms and armor. In preparation for this new undertaking, Bashford Dean, the head of the Arms and Armor department, sought the advice of Hollywood professionals D. W. Griffith and John Barrymore. Once the scripts were complete, Dean left most of the actual work to his young assistant curators, Stephen V. Grancsay and Thomas T. Hoopes, who also appear in the films. A Visit to the Armor Galleries was especially popular and includes memorable scenes: a Gothic armor steps out of its vitrine to answer visitors' questions about the collection, a seesaw with a small child on one end and a medieval mail shirt on the other demonstrates the relatively modest weight of armor, and a fully armored knight on horseback gallops through Central Park, with Belvedere Castle (the park's weather station) rising picturesquely in the background. When actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. viewed the film at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, he pronounced it "bully."

Video/Audio (6)

Dressing in Steel: Part One
(00:37:39) 683 views

Dressing in Steel: Part Two
(00:20:04) 274 views

A Visit to the Armor Galleries
(00:30:21) 4358 views

Bashford Dean and the Creation of the Arms and Armor Department, 1904–1929
(00:30:12) 226 views

The Art of Arms and Armor: Challenges of Research, Display, and Education
(00:33:09) 320 views

Curators, Collectors, and Dealers: The Growth of the Arms and Armor Collection, 1929 to the Present
(00:36:37) 207 views

Three Hungarian-style Shields

Date:: ca. 1500–1550
Culture:: Eastern European
Medium:: Wood, leather, gesso, polychromy
Classification:: Shields
Credit Line:: 42.50.29, .30: Gift of Stephen V. Grancsay, 1942 49.57.1: Rogers Fund, 1949
Accession Number:: 42.50.29, .30; 49.57.1

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 373

Description

These wing-shaped shields, with the distinctive upward-sweeping back edge, were the characteristic light-cavalry shields of Hungary. During the sixteenth century, the style was adopted across much of eastern Europe by both Christian and Islamic horsemen. The shield's elongated upper edge was designed to defend the back of the head and neck against cuts from a saber, the preferred cavalry weapon in that region.
The shield on the right is painted on its exterior with the double-bladed sword of the prophet Muhammad and on its interior with the Crucifix and instruments of the Passion. This unusual mix of Islamic and Christian symbols suggests that the shield was used in a tournament by a Christian warrior dressed in Muslim fashion. In these "Hungarian style" tournaments, the participants wore Hungarian and Turkish costumes and used sabers to strike off feathers attached to their opponents' helmets and to the apex of their painted shields. Even at a time when Turkish armies were a constant threat to eastern Europe, their costumes and tactics were imitated by their foes.
Provenance

42.50.29: Ex. coll.: Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche of Haryngworth, Sussex; Clarence H. Mackay, Roslyn, New York. 42.50.30: Ex. coll.: Archduke Eugen, Castle Engelstein and Fortress Hohenwerfen, Austria; Clarence H. Mackay, Roslyn, New York. 49.57.1: Ex coll.: Albert Figdor, Vienna; Oscar Bondy, Vienna.
See also
What
Costume (41,678)

Leather (5,761)

Armor (2,071)

Polychromy (585)

Shields (380)

Gesso (362)

Hungarian (5)
Where
Europe (148,586)
When
A.D. 1400-1600 (20,545)
In the Museum
Arms and Armor (13,084)