
- Tile
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Tile
- Place of origin:
Germany (made)
- Date:
ca. 1250-1275 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Earthenware, with line-impressed decoration
- Museum number:
175-1902
- Gallery location:
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 9, The Dorothy and Michael Hintze Gallery, case 1
Line impressed floor tiles became popular in the Rhineland during the second half of the 13th century. These were typically decorated with bold, linear designs of hunting scenes, figures and heraldic animals. Although the design on this tile appears simplistic, it has been composed with a surprising amount of detail and shows the typical German knightly attire of the mid to late 13th-century.
The knight wears a ‘great helm’, a barrel shaped helmet with eye-slits and vents for air. The hands are shown covered in mitten-like gloves, from which it is possible to deduce that he is wearing a full suit of mail - the sleeve and glove would be made of one piece. The mail shirt (a hawberk) would also have had a hood. The rendering of the legs and feet, with no join or line, shows that he wears mail hose, in the manner of a pair of tights. He is armed with a lance and carries a shield of the 'heater' variety. His warhorse wears no armour, but has an heraldic coat on which the knights arms would have been emblazoned.