Fashioned to resemble a head of tightly curled hair encircled by a wreath of oak leaves, this helmet evokes the appearance of an ancient hero, perhaps a Roman emperor. The reference to the oak (rovere, in Italian) may indicate that the helmet was made for a member of the della Rovere family, dukes of Urbino. The cheek-pieces are probably nineteenth-century restorations.
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Title:Helmet all'Antica
Armorer:Attributed to Filippo Negroli (Italian, Milan ca. 1510–1579)
Date:ca. 1532–35
Geography:Milan
Culture:Italian, Milan
Medium:Steel
Dimensions:H. 11 1/4 in. (85 cm); W. 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm); D. 9 in. (22.7 cm); Wt. 2 lb. 2 oz. (964 g)
Classification:Helmets
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1904
Accession Number:04.3.202
Eugène Piot, Paris (until d. 1890; his estate sale, Objets d’art de la Renaissance composant la collection de feu M. Eugène Piot, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 21–24, 1890, no. 282, sold to Bachereau for Dino); Charles Maurice Camille de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino, Paris (1890–1904; sold to MMA).
Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–March 18, 1953, no. 26.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 18–June 7, 1953, no. 26.
Pittsburgh. Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1953–April 1954, no. 26.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries," October 8, 1998–January 17, 1999.
Urbino, Italy. Palazzo Ducale. "I Della Rovere - Storia di una dinastia," April 4–October 3, 2004.
Hôtel Drouot. Atelier De Fortuny, Oeuvre Posthume. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, April 26–30, 1875. no. 20.
Beaumont, Edouard de. "Les Armures et les Armes Anciennes au Trocadéro." Gazette de Beaux-Arts (May 1878), p. 711.
Chevallier, Paul. Objets D'art De La Renaissance: Tableaux. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, May 21-24, 1890. no. 282.
Cosson, Charles Alexander. Le Cabinet d'Armes de Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino. Paris: E. Rouveyre, 1901. p. 31, no. B 26, pl. 9.
Dean, Bashford, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Catalogue of European Arms and Armor. Hand-book (Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)), Vol. 15. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1905. p. 113, fig. 49H.
Laking, Guy Francis, Charles A. de Cosson, and Francis Henry Cripps-Day. A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries. Vol. IV. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1920–1922. p. 142, fig. 1229.
Grancsay, Stephen V. "Fortuny as a Collector and Restorer of Ancient Arms and Armor." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (November, 1921), pp. 236-237, fig. 4.
Cripps-Day, Francis Henry. A Record of Armour Sales, 1881–1924. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1925. p. 25.
Grancsay, Stephen V. Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1953. p. 14, no. 26, ill.
Thomas, Bruno, and Ortwin Gamber. "L'Arte Milanese dell'Armatura." Storia di Milano XI p.763.
Aroldi, Aldo M. Armi e Armature Italiane Fino al XVIII Secolo. Milan: Bramante Editrice, 1961. fig. 167.
Boccia, Lionello G., and Eduardo T. Coelho. L'Arte dell'Armatura in Italia. Milan: Bramante Editrice, 1967. p. 329.
Scalini, Mario. Armature All'eroica Dei Negroli. Specchio del Bargelo, Vol. 38. Firenze: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1987. p. 14, fig. 6.
Pyhrr, Stuart W., José-A. Godoy, and Silvio Leydi. Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. pp. 132–33, no. 21, ill.
Williams, Alan R. "The Steel of the Negroli." Metropolitan Museum Journal (1999), pp. 106–108, figs. 10–13.
Williams, Alan. The Knight and the Blast Furnace: A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages & the Early Modern Period. History of Warfare, Vol. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2002. p. 239.
Dal Poggetto, Paolo Dr., Piero della Francesca, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Palazzo Ducale, Pesaro, and Electa. I Della Rovere: Piero Della Francesca, Raffaello, Tiziano. Milan, 2004. p.333, no. VII.4.
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