During the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian princes, with their enthusiasm for all things having to do with classical antiquity, enjoyed spectacles and pageants that copied Ancient Roman victory parades or triumphae. Soldiers and attendants carried parade shields, which often depicted scenes from Greek mythology or Ancient history, and their function was display rather than physical protection. This example depicts the story of Hippodamia, who was raped by drunken Centaurs (mythical half men, half horses) at her wedding.
Physical description
Wooden Shield, covered with strips of canvass, primed with gesso and gilded with gold leaf, which turn is partly covered with glazes and paint. The part which is meant to show up as gold has been left unglazed. Flesh tones are shaded with brownish black hatchings. On the front of the shield, Hippodamia is depicted being raped by a centaur, while Hercules tries to defend her, underneath a series of arcaded columns, with a city in the background. On the back is a bare rectanagular wooden patch where there would have been straps, around which is painted the story of Mucius Scaevola.
Place of Origin
Italy (north, made)
Date
ca.1535 (made)
Artist/maker
unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Wood, covered with canvas, painted in grisaille and gold
Dimensions
Diameter: 60 cm, Depth: 12 cm
Object history note
This object was bought from William Blundell Spence, an English dealer based in Fiesole, near Florence, in February 1869 for £100.
Historical significance: Although this parade shield or buckler is unsigned and undated and its original provenance remains unknown, it is lavishly decorated and must have been associated with a prince or nobleman, wishing to show off his pomp and splendour by staging a religious or military parade. Most surviving bucklers are thought to have been made in Florence and Venice, and perhaps the finest examples are Caravaggio's Medusa, now in the Uffizi gallery, or Giovanni Stradano's battle of Scannagallo, dated 1574, in the Odesclchi collections in Rome. Although not of the same callibre as these two, this shield must have been a striking object with a shining glaze and gilding underneath. The battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths represented the triumph of order over barbarism, and was a suitable theme for a pageant, particularly during the sixteenth century, a time when Italy was prone to invasions from Northern Europe and a prince would want to be seen as a protector of his people and restorer of order.
Historical context note
Parade shields or bucklers, known in Italian as rotelle were worn by soldiers and retainers of princes and noblemen in military and religious parades. On occasions, they served as prizes for victors in jousting tornaments, like one presented by Alessandro dei' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in 1536. The battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths, was widely known owing to popular translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses , which provides a particularly bloodthirsty account, and popular during the Renaissance because it represented the triumph of Order over Barbarism
Descriptive line
Parade shield, leather painted in grisaille and gilt on a dark green ground, North Italian, early 16th century
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Lionello G. Boccia: Un inedito dello Stradano: la "rotella Odescalchi", L'Arte, No. 5, March 1969, pp. 95 - 116.
Labels and date
PARADE SHIELDS
About 1500-20
Shields of this sort were not used in battle. Instead, they were worn during parades by the soldiers and retainers of a prince or nobleman to suggest his status and heroism. With their scenes from classical history and mythology, they made the parade seem like an ancient Roman triumph. Here, the upper shield shows centaurs trying to abduct Hippodamia from her wedding. Centaurs represented lechery and barbarism.
Northern Italy
Above
Wood covered with canvas, painted in grisaille and gold
Museum no. 174-1869
Below
Wood with lacquered and gilded decoration
Museum no. 1-1865 [2008]
PAGEANT SHIELD.
Wood covered in canvas and painted in grisaille and gilt.
The Rape of Hippodamia.
NORTH ITALIAN; early 16th century.
174-1859. [before 2006]
Materials
Wood; Glaze; Iron; Gold leaf; Gesso
Techniques
Painting; Gilding; Glazing; Turning
Subjects depicted
Hercules; Battle; Theseus; Centaurs; Hippodamia; Pirithous
Categories
Ceremonial objects; Arms & Armour
Production Type
Unique
Collection code
FWK
