Helms bolted to the breast- and backplate and having large visors with multiple apertures for maximum sight and ventilation were typically used both in the tourney and in foot combat. The former was a mock combat fought by groups of mounted contestants armed with lances and rebated swords or clubs; in the latter, two armored contestants fought on foot within a wooden enclosure, the favored weapons usually being polaxes or swords, their strokes carefully monitored by referees. This helm bears faint traces of a mark, an M surmounted by a crescent, which is thought to be that of Guillem Margot (active in Brussels, recorded 1505–20). The same mark appears on three other elements of armor in the Metropolitan Museum: an armet (acc. no. 29.158.52); and elbow defense, or couter (acc. no. 29.158.1h, where it is struck twice); and the front half of a tournament helm (acc. no. 14.25.572).
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Artwork Details
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Title:Tournament Helm
Date:ca. 1510–20
Culture:Anglo-Flemish
Medium:Steel, copper alloy
Dimensions:H. 17 1/4 in. (43.8 cm); W. 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm); D. 14 1/8 in. (35.9 cm); Wt. 10 lb. 5 oz. (4675 g)
Classification:Helmets
Credit Line:Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, Funds from various donors, 1929
Accession Number:29.158.38
Marking: Stamped on the bowl, to the right of the end of the comb, faint traces of a mark: M [surmounted by a crescent] (thought to be that of Guillem Margot, active in Brussels, recorded 1505–20).
Adalbert von Kolasinski, Warsaw (until d. 1917; Sammlung des verstorbenen Herrn A. von Kolasinski – Warschau, Rudolph Lepke's Kuns-Auktions-Haus, Berlin, March 27–31, 1917, no. 1471); Bashford Dean, New York (until d. 1928; sold by his estate 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. 22.
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.
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. 22.
Seattle, Wash. Seattle Art Museum. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 11, 1982–June 6, 1982, no. 8.
Denver, Colo. Denver Art Museum. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 18–October 10, 1982, no. 8.
San Antonio, Tex. Witte Museum of the San Antonio Museum Association. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 13, 1982–February 5, 1983, no. 8.
Minneapolis, Minn. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 24–July 31, 1983, no. 8.
San Francisco. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1983–January 28, 1984, no. 8.
Detroit, Mich. Detroit Institute of Arts. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 4–June 17, 1984, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Helmets 1450–1650: Treasures from the Reserve Collection," January 25, 2000–December 30, 2001, no. 18.
Sammlung des verstorbenen Herrn A. von Kolasinski, Warschau. 1. Abt., Antiquitäten, Kostüme und Waffen. Berlin: Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, March 17–31, 1917. lot 1471.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stephen V. Grancsay, and Carl Otto von Kienbusch. The Bashford Dean Collection of Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Portland, ME: Southworth Press for the Armor and Arms Club of New York City, 1933. p. 130, no. 45, pl. 4.
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. 13, no. 22.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Helmut Nickel, Stuart W. Pyhrr, Leonid Tarassuk, and American Federation of Arts. The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Exhibition. New York: The Federation, 1982. pp. 34–25. no. 8, ill.
"Une engime: la production belge d'armures vers l'an 1500 et au-delà." Le Musée d'Armes. Etudes et recherches sur les armes anciennes 73–4 p. 18, fig. 15.
Pyhrr, Stuart W. European Helmets, 1450–1650: Treasures from the Reserve Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jan 25, 2000 - Dec 30, 2000. pp. 15, 47, no. 18, ill.
Blair, Claude. "The Will of Martin van Royne and some Lists of Almain Armourers at Greenwich." The Journal of the Arms and Armour Society XVII, no. 4 p. 210, note 2.
Terjanian, Pierre. "The King and the Armourers of Flanders." In Henry VIII: Arms and the Man, 1509–2009, edited by Graeme Rimer, Thom Richardson, and J. P. D. Cooper. Leeds: Royal Armouries, 2009. pp. 156, 159.
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