This is not just a group of enthusiastic jousters, straining at the leash to storm onto the field. It was also a Christmas present. In 1612, Magdalena Sibylla surprised her husband, Elector Johann Georg I, with seven identical foot-tourney armours, one of which is today in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They’re attributed to Christian Müller, a Dresden armoursmith who – from 1619 onwards – had a full-time appointment at the Dresden court. He worked in the Electoral Rüstkammer, the armoury in the New Stable, together with other master armourers and their assistants, and cutlers, gunsmiths, goldsmiths, coopers, strap makers and carpenters.
Each suit of armour comprises a helmet, a collar, a short fashionable “peascod” breastplate and a backplate with a moveable back-of-skirt. The arms are protected by short upper and lower arm-pieces, called vambraces, and an elbow piece, called a cowter, with iron gauntlets for the hands. The upper thighs are protected by twenty articulated tassets that are attached to the breastplate. The closed helmets, with openings for the eyes, nose and mouth, are characteristic of the period. A thoroughly modern-looking design, you might say; it could take its place alongside figures by Oskar Schlemmer or other twentieth-century Bauhaus artists.
Magdalena Sibylla may well have commissioned these harnesses to mark the birth of her first son, in March 1612. Sadly, the child died soon after birth, so Magdalena Sibylla had to wait for a later cause for celebration. Christmas seemed appropriate, particularly since she was already pregnant again by then. The armours were first used following the baptism of Johann Georg II, heir to the throne, who was born in May 1613. The festivities lasted for a whole week. There were wrestling matches, processions, a bear hunt in the market square, lion-baiting, and finally a foot-tourney. This tournament provided the Elector with a welcome opportunity to wear his gilded harness.
