Question about medieval and renaissance armor materials

RangerWickett

Legend

• Oct 8, 2021

• #1

I've seen armor in museums that appear to have panels that are coated for aesthetic appeal. Something like this:

I'm curious what the materials here are? Is it some sort of polish? A lacquer? Plain old paint?

Is anyone here enough of a aficionado of medieval and renaissance armor to know definitively? I want to make sure when I write about a character with armor like this, I get the terminology right.

 

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Umbran

Mod Squad

Staff member

Supporter

• Oct 8, 2021

• #2

RangerWickett said:

I'm curious what the materials here are? Is it some sort of polish? A lacquer? Plain old paint?

Click to expand...

Paint, lacquer, patnia, and heating were all used to produce color on armors. One could also add embellishments of other metals, or even rivet textiles and leathers to the metal.

In that particular example, I couldn't say for sure. It doesn't have the shine we'd expect of a lacquer, so I would expect a paint.

When I blow up the image, I can see where the colorant strays just a bit outside the lines, and even brush strokes - I'm definitely leaning to it being paint.

Spoiler: close up view

 

Last edited: Oct 8, 2021

Ryujin

Legend

• Oct 8, 2021

• #3

I pulled out Toby Capwell's (Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection, London) book "Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour" and flipped through it. The closest thing that I could quickly find to what you have pictured is a suit of equestrian armour of Ottheinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine. It was etched and then painted and gilt, to better highlight the etched lines.

A bit of explanation can be found here and the site has a tonne of armour images.

The Art of Renaissance Armour | Materials and Techniques | The Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection is famous all over the world for its breath-taking European Armouries, discover them in this story.

www.wallacecollection.org

 

Ryujin

Legend

• Oct 8, 2021

• #4

And a quick image search tells me all about that SPECIFIC armour

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/22279