The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

Gothic Breastplate

Gothic Breastplate

c. 1485
steel
Overall: 50.5 x 35.8 x 15.8 cm (19 7/8 x 14 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance 1916.29
Location: 210A Armor Court

Did You Know?

This breastplate consists of two primary plates of steel fastened at the center by a rivet.

Description

Individual armor elements, like this breastplate, were shaped in ways that would make their surfaces as deflecting as possible. The contours of this breastplate, along with the pronounced vertical ridge down its center, were for precisely this purpose.
  • Seymour Lucas, sold to Frank Gair Macomber
    -1916
    Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1941), Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1916-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924. Mention: p. 62, C4, ; Reproduced: Plate XII, C4 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Helen Ives Gilchrist. Handbook of the Severance Collection of Arms and Armor. 2d ed., 1948. Reproduction: p. 33 archive.org
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. 162
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. 183
    Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
  • Armor Court Reinstallation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title=Gothic Breastplate|url=false|author=|year=c. 1485|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.29