One of the many masterpieces from the armour collection owned by Prince Ladislao Odescalchi, bearing witness to the art of war of the mid-16th century
This is a rare, prized example of complete armour. The back of the helmet has a ‘W’, making it possible to connect it to Michael Witz the Younger who, at the head of one of the main armoury workshops in Innsbruck from 1538 to 1583, completed it between 1550 and 1560.
Made entirely of steely iron, it is composed of a helmet called a burgonet (with a hinged metal peak) and armour for the chest, back, shoulders, arms and legs. This main nucleus is coupled with two unrelated elements, the gloves, or gauntlet, and the lance rest on the chest, used when riding a horse: one is slightly older, the second made slightly later.
Armour of this type, used by troupes on foot and normally called Harnasch, were generally made in Germany in the late 1500s, especially in Nuremberg, Augsburg and Innsbruck. Its fine quality indicates that it was used by an official or a commander of the infantry.
The armour, which became part of the collection of Prince Ladislao Odescalchi in the second half of the nineteenth century, arrived in Palazzo Venezia in 1959.
