Once again in the Riesensaal we see a Christmas present, which shows just how popular tournaments were at the Court of Saxony throughout the sixteenth century. In the same way that Magdalena Sibylla surprised her husband with new armours in December 1612, the Electress Sophia had ordered a large set of foot-tourney harnesses for her husband, Christian I, from Anton Peffenhauser for Christmas in 1591. And once again, Peffenhauser had an opportunity to show that he was able to fulfil large commissions for illustrious clients. For the Electress ordered no fewer than twelve harnesses, and hers was by no means the only commission in the Augsburg armourer’s order books at the time.
The three surviving harnesses from this set stand before you in shimmering blue. Extensive foliage ornamentation fills the breastplate: symmetrical, elegant and detailed, even down to the veins in the leaves, without ever becoming too much. Golden leaves, stylised blooms and stems are all etched into the harnesses – a very popular technique at that time.
It was mostly southern German craftsmen who decorated their work with etched ornamentation. Their French and Italian colleagues favoured embossing and gilding. Etching had the advantage that the thickness of the metal plates was barely altered and the smooth surface largely unaffected.
To produce flowers and leaves, such as those we see here, the armourer first brushed the surface of the metal with wax or an acid-resistant glaze. Next he created his design in this coating using a needle or a scraper. The acidic fluid, mostly nitric acid, which he then poured over the prepared surface, ate into the exposed metal, while the coated sections remained protected.
The armours you see here each weigh more than eighteen kilos. It’s hard for us to imagine how men were able to fight weighed down like that. But they were trained from early childhood to cope with suits of armour, and when these were custom-made, they fitted very well and barely impeded the wearer’s movements.
