Part 3

The Persian armorers did not follow the European custom of forging body armor exactly to fit the wearer, but instead made the principal defense of four rectangular plates known as _char aina_ or “the four mirrors”. Two were worn as breast- and backplate respectively, the other two, made concave on the upper edge, were worn at the sides, the concavity fitting under the arm. Chain mail was always used in the East, even more extensively than in Europe, to protect all areas of the body not covered by the char aina or other defenses of solid plate. Fig. 24 shows a plate of such a four-piece armor. It is made of fine Damascus steel (the pattern is too fine to show in the photograph), and is decorated with damascene inlay of floral arabesques in gold. This is work of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, and combines adequate functionality with oriental elegance. A Persian helmet (Fig. 25) of the same period shows skillful forging of the fluted ornament.

But the helmet in Fig. 26, probably a century or more earlier, shows a much greater appreciation of sculptural form. With a row of parallel vertical flutings around its domed upper part, it resembles closely the Maximilian armor of contemporary Europe. It is doubtful, however, if many European smiths could have forged the minaret-like pinnacle which terminates the dome. The helmet is decorated with damascene work of silver in calligraphic inscriptions and arabesques. Its owner’s neck was protected by chain mail attached around the lower edge of the helmet. Probably because of the warmer climate, the Saracenic warriors never adopted the closed helmet of European lands, but preferred to leave the face exposed, or protected only by a nasal bar which was often so arranged that it could be slid upwards and clamped.

ARMS: STRIKING AND CUTTING WEAPONS

Man’s first weapon was probably a club, and the simple club has always retained a certain popularity. Even in the middle of the sixteenth century, when arms of all kinds attained great elaboration, the mace, or short one-handed club, was the accepted weapon of military men in holy orders who, forbidden to shed blood, found no such prohibition against the bloodless cracking of skulls. Fig. 27 shows such a mace, of heavy steel, carved and gilded, a formidable though beautiful weapon. Related arms are short-handled military axes and hammers.

But the accepted symbol of man as a fighting creature has always been the sword, and the sword, perhaps more than any other item of man’s warlike panoply, has experienced the full range of his artistic and technical initiative. Space does not here permit a discussion of the innumerable types of swords; only a brief resumé of the general development can be given. This is supplemented by a display of some typical forms along one side wall of the armor gallery.

Stone Age man could not make any true swords, for the flint and obsidian which he had to use were too brittle to be available in large pieces. But bronze could be cast into swords both effective and beautiful. A number of Chinese bronze sword blades from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) (Fig. 28) are available in the study collection. They are rather short, double edged blades, adapted primarily for thrusting, but not without cutting ability too. The Greeks and Romans used swords of rather similar form, and also another type which tended to broaden near the point, bringing the weight forward and adding impetus to both the thrust and the cut.

Mention has already been made, (p. 4), of the rare but beautiful swords of the dark ages, made in whole or in part of laminated metal resembling the Damascus steel of the Middle East, (cf. p. 20). Such swords were carried by the Vikings who harried the coast of Britain and extended their voyages even to North America. These swords had long, straight, symmetrically double-edged blades, a short hilt, and a short crossbar guard between blade and hilt. They were very powerful in a downward slash, but too heavy to be manipulated easily as thrusting weapons.

By the fifteenth century the crossbar and the hilt had become longer, giving the weapon a better balance, but the general character of the arm remained the same. With the longer hilt, both hands could be used, considerably increasing the power of the weapon (Fig. 29 [1], also title page illustration). This tendency continued in the sixteenth century until it culminated in the enormous two-handed swords used by the professional mercenary soldiers, or _landesknechts_ (Fig. 29 [2]). Such swords were over five feet long, with immense drooping guards and long leather-wrapped hilts.

As the sixteenth century advanced, sword blades became narrower, lighter, and more adapted for thrusting, while guards developed rings and curved knuckle-guards to protect the out-thrust hand (Fig. 29 [4], [3]). The new method of fighting had definite advantages over the old slashing system, which required the sword to be raised high, exposing the body, before a blow could be struck, and soon the thrusting sword, or _rapier_, was used everywhere. The system of rings which formed the guard grew more complicated and finally coalesced into a solid metal cup, which completely shielded the hand within it (Fig. 29 [6], [8]). Sometimes a dagger (Fig. 29 [5], [7]) was held in the left hand to parry the opponent’s sword blade, but eventually this was abandoned and fencers learned to parry with the rear portion of their own blades, before making a second thrust (_riposte_) with the point. Action grew faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the seventeenth century the customary weapon was the _court sword_, with a short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all (Fig. 30).

In addition to the sword, the dagger was often used as a supplementary weapon which could still be carried for self-protection when courtesy or convenience made the wearing of a sword impracticable. Daggers were made in a number of special shapes, varying with changes of fashion. In the fifteenth century two popular forms were the _rondel dagger_ (Fig. 31) which had guard and pommel in the form of disks, and the _kidney dagger_ (then known by a less-printable name and worn, with the naive exhibitionism of pre-Victorian days, directly below the belt buckle) which had a straight, simple hilt and a short guard of ball-like form. Italians of the sixteenth century liked the _anelace_, with its drooping guard and short, wide, sharply tapering blade. Mention has already been made of the left-hand daggers of the seventeenth century. The _stiletto_, without a guard other than a short cross-bar, was also popular at this time. Hunters and landesknechts often carried a complete outfit of small tools in the scabbard with their dagger; such a _trousse_ (Fig. 32) was very convenient when preparing freshly-killed venison for the cook or when eating around a camp fire.

LANCES AND POLE ARMS

The chief arm of the mounted knight was the lance, a weapon having a long and often quite heavy wooden shaft and a steel point. Near the butt its diameter was reduced to provide a comfortable hand grip, and just in front of this grip there was applied a _vamplate_ or conical hand guard of steel. Behind the grip there was attached a thick iron ring called a _graper_, which, when the lance was in use, rested against the hook or lance-rest projecting from the right side of the knight’s breastplate. The graper thus served as a thrust bearing, and put directly behind the point of the lance the entire momentum of horse and rider. When such a projectile made a direct hit upon an opponent something had to give. Either the opponent was knocked completely off his horse, or his back was broken, or the lance was shattered.

Foot soldiers also employed arms with long wooden shafts, of which by far the commonest was the _pike_, which had a very simple steel point and butt ferrule respectively on the ends of a slender rod of wood about fourteen feet long. This was the arm of the great bodies of mercenary infantry which did so much of the fighting of the seventeenth century. A company of such men, formed into a square or circle, the front rank kneeling, the second standing, and both holding their pikes with the butts against the ground and the points projecting outward, was almost invulnerable to cavalry, whose horses would not charge against the forest of pike-points. The one effective maneuver against them was for some of the cavalry to dismount and attack swinging great two-handed swords, which could beat down the pike points and allow the cavalry to ride in.

Lance and pike were simple utilitarian tools; few have survived. But there are other pole arms, from the fifteenth century on, which offered more opportunity to individual taste in form and decoration; a number of these are present in the Museum’s collection. Some (Fig. 33) were developments of the simple spear point, as for example (1) the type called an _ox-tongue_ or (2) a boar spear provided with a toggle to prevent a wounded animal from charging right up the shaft of the weapon which transfixed him. In (3), now a well-developed _partisan_, the toggle has been replaced by a projecting spur at each side of the base. In (4) these spurs have become large and ornamental, the weapon is decorated with etching, and has become a ceremonial object rather than a weapon for actual fighting. (5) is a partisan of the state guard of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1697-1733), and is even more noticeably designed for display purposes only.

Other pole arms are developments of the axe. Military axes (Fig. 34 [1], [2]) had handles somewhat shorter than those of pikes, spears or partisans but longer than the short-handled axes used on horseback. They were particularly popular for use in judicial combats or “trial by battle”. Each contestant in a law suit would swear to the truth of his claim, and call upon God to prove its truth. The two men, armed with such axes, would fight until one was killed or driven out of the ring. The victor was thus proven to have told the truth, while the unsuccessful contestant, if still alive, was executed for perjury. Such axes, capable of defending the right, were made with special care, and were highly valued by their surviving owners.

Axes with longer shafts were known as _halberds_, and were usually provided with a sharpened hook at the back of the axe blade to permit a man on foot to catch and cut the bridle rein of an attacking horseman. Like the partisans, halberds developed from plain functional military types, (Fig. 34 [3], [4]) of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries respectively to highly decorated types carried as badges of authority by the state guards of Christian II of Saxony (Fig. 34 [5]) and of the Princes of Liechtenstein (Fig. 34 [6]) respectively.

MIDDLE EASTERN EDGED WEAPONS

The chief characteristic of the blades of the Middle East is the beautiful watered pattern of the Damascus steel, discussed on page 20. Unfortunately this pattern is too delicate to show well in reproduction, but it may readily be observed in the actual objects, exhibited in the gallery of Middle Eastern Art. Two knives are shown in Fig. 35, illustrating delicate Damascene work in gold and similar ornament carried out not by inlay of another metal, but by chiselling in low relief.

Fig. 36 shows a Persian sword hilt of solid gold, from the late thirteenth or fourteenth century. The ends of its guard are formed as the heads of lions. It is engraved with floral arabesques and a calligraphic inscription. The engraved lines are filled in with black pigment (_niello_).

PROJECTILE WEAPONS: BOWS AND CROSSBOWS

Ever since a hairy primitive first picked up a stone and threw it, man has tried to find better and better ways to strike from a safe distance. The devices which he has produced for this purpose have been many and varied, yet, strangely enough, remarkable similarities often occur between inventions of widely separated areas. In ancient Peruvian graves have been found cord slings for hurling stones almost identical with those used by herd boys in Palestine today, as in the time of David and Goliath. Bronze arrowheads from prehistoric Japan are much the same as those excavated from Roman Britain. The bow has several different characteristic forms distributed throughout the world, but its fundamental principle is everywhere the same.

The first projectile-throwing arm appropriate to an art museum is the crossbow, which is simply a bow mounted on a wooden stock provided with a catch and trigger, so that the bow could be carried ready to shoot. This was a great convenience in hunting or war, because otherwise the time lost in drawing the bow might give the victim opportunity to escape. Moreover, it was soon found that the application of mechanical devices permitted the use of a bow much stronger than any man could draw unaided.

Fig. 37 shows a light Flemish crossbow of the fifteenth century. Its wooden stock is inlaid with white and with green stained bone in openwork patterns. This type of crossbow required mechanical assistance to pull the string back to the catch which would hold it until the moment should arrive to shoot; the instrument employed was called a _goat’s foot_ lever.

The crossbow of Fig. 38 is Italian work of the sixteenth century. The bow is light enough to be pulled by the hands alone, without mechanical assistance. It had a double string, with a little pouch attached between the two strands, and shot small bullets, instead of arrows. The wooden stock is beautifully carved and the metal parts are damascened with arabesques in gold. This type of light crossbow was especially popular with aristocratic ladies who are frequently represented shooting it in hunting tapestries of the period.

In Fig. 39 is shown a very powerful hunting crossbow of the seventeenth century. The bow is of steel, two inches wide and a third of an inch thick. The bowstring resembles a piece of heavy rope. To pull this string, bending a steel spring as massive as this, requires a tremendous power and an immense strength in the mechanism which will hold the fully-drawn bow until the moment for its release.

The pulling power is supplied by a device, also shown in the illustration (Fig. 39) called a _cranequin_ or _cric_. It is in mechanical respects essentially identical with a modern geared automobile jack, although, of course, it pulls instead of lifts (Fig. 40). A force of fifty pounds applied to the handle generates on the claw which grasps the bowstring a pull of more than two tons! Fig. 41 shows the mechanism for holding and releasing the string. (These parts are, of course, normally invisible, being hidden inside the wooden stock).

Returning to the artistic aspects of the crossbow of Fig. 39, we observe that the whole of the wooden stock is inlaid with plates of white stag horn engraved with scenes illustrating the legend of William Tell—certainly an appropriate decoration! The bow is quite plain except for the addition of decorative pompoms of colored wool, but the cranequin gear housing is elaborately etched with representations of Biblical and mythological personages, strapwork, and interlace, much of this unfortunately now worn away.

PROJECTILE WEAPONS: FIREARMS

The study of antique firearms is a fascinating one. Contrary to usual belief, firearms are not a late invention. They were in use before complete suits of plate armor were made, and continued in use throughout the entire period that plate armor was worn. Many thousands of different specimens have been classified, but all firearms before the nineteenth century belong to one of four types. These include (1) the cannon or hand cannon in which the charge of gunpowder was set off by direct application of a burning slow match or hot iron held by the shooter; (2) the matchlock in which burning slow match or tinder was held in a clamp attached to the gun and was brought into contact with the gunpowder by a mechanism attached to the gun and operated by the shooter; (3) the wheellock in which fire was not carried about, but was produced by a mechanism like that of a modern cigarette lighter: a rough wheel was spun around in contact with a stone (not flint, but a nodular form of iron pyrite) so that sparks were produced to set off the gunpowder; (4) the flintlock and its variations, in which a piece usually of flint stone held in a clamp attached to a strong spring was moved by the spring to strike a piece of steel, and thereby generate the spark which would set fire to the gunpowder. The Museum’s collection includes interesting and unusual specimens of all but the first of these types.

The earliest, simplest form of hand firearm, the hand cannon of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, is also the least interesting esthetically. Consisting of a simple tube of iron, it was usually crudely formed, and quite undecorated. Such hand cannon have much archaeological interest, but contribute nothing to the history of art. The first step forward in the mechanization of firearms was the matchlock, and matchlock guns also were usually crude and strictly utilitarian, military pieces (Fig. 42). However, a few specimens of fine quality were made for important personages, and the Museum is fortunate in possessing precisely such a specimen (Fig. 43), the gift of the John M. Olin Trust. The exact date and place of its manufacture are uncertain; it could be English but seems a bit more likely to be Dutch, toward the middle of the seventeenth century.

The lock is the standard seventeenth century matchlock, with the earlier form of trigger resembling that of a crossbow. The serpentine which holds the burning slow match moves upon pressure of the trigger in the rearward direction, from the muzzle towards the butt, bringing the burning slow match (a piece of rope impregnated with saltpeter) into contact with the powder pan, the swiveling cover of which must first have been opened by hand. After the slow match has ignited the priming powder and fired the piece, a release of pressure on the trigger allows a return spring to force the serpentine back to its original position. Notice the shape of the serpentine, suggesting not so much a snake as a double-headed dragon.

Evryti regis filiam Iolam, occiso patre, aedvxit Hercvles 15 HsB 44

The barrel is one-third octagon with finely forged cross mouldings at the change of shape as well as at breach and muzzle. The rear sight is a steel tube, beautifully formed in partly octagonal, partly fluted and molded sections. A flash guard extends from the pan to this rear sight to protect the shooter’s eyes against particles of burning powder from the pan.

It is the stock, however, which is the most remarkable feature of the gun. This is of dark brown wood, completely covered with an elaborate inlay of brass wire and engraved mother-of-pearl in a design of floral scrolls issuing from vases and supporting birds and insects. A few escutcheons are inlaid in engraved bone or white stag horn. The elaborateness of this inlay, combined with its delicacy and taste, make this one of the outstanding matchlock guns of the world.

The wheellock, which for the first time freed gunners from the necessity of carrying around with them a continuously burning coil of slow match, was invented in the early years of the sixteenth century and retained its popularity, in Germany at least, until the very end of the eighteenth. It thus has had a longer period of use than any other firearm with a discharge mechanism. The Museum’s earliest wheellock, from about 1550 (Fig. 44), has its entire octagonal barrel and lock magnificently decorated with damascene of floral arabesques in gold and silver. The stock is inlaid with engraved stag horn showing hunting scenes, Hercules’ capture of Iole (whose hand he had won by conquering her father, Eurytus, in a shooting match), and the figures of Alexander the Great and “Der Nero”. This gun well illustrates the close relationship which, in this day, existed between the various arts, for these inlaid designs are copied almost exactly from a series of engravings by Hans Sebald Beham (1500-_ca._ 1550), examples of which are in the City Art Museum’s print collection (Fig. 45).

Another, rifled, specimen, from about 1635, formerly in the Liechtenstein collection (Fig. 46 [2]) has a plain barrel, but the lock is finely engraved with a hunting scene, while the stock (Fig. 47 [2]) is most elaborately inlaid with fine filigrees and engraved plates of stag horn representing mythological characters, animals, and monsters against an architectural and arabesque background. The stock bears the mark of Martin Süssebecker, who was born at Liegnitz in 1593, and died in 1668 at Dresden where he was gunmaker to the court of the Electors of Saxony.