Military History Photo Friday: Decorative Shields in the Uffizi Gallery

Medusa on shield, painted by Caravaggio c. 1595-98. It brings to mind the Classical tale of how Perseus beheaded Medusa and later gave the head to the goddess Athena, who put it on her shield. This piece was a gift from Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte to Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1598.

Shortly after my last trip to Tangier, I got to spend a few days in Florence. Besides brushing off a pickpocket and admiring some grotesque art, I also spent a wonderful day in the famous Uffizi Gallery. They have a fine collection of Classical and Renaissance art. Of interest to military historians are two decorative shields. Of course these would have never seen a battle, but were rather for parades or simply hanging on the wall.

The back of the Medusa shield.

A buckler (small shield) with spike and etched decoration. Made c. 1570-80 by an unknown artist, it was kept in the Medici Armory together with the Medusa shield.

Military History Photo Friday: Sixteenth Century Ivory Powder Horns

Sometimes even the most common objects can be turned into works of art. Here are some powder horns from the sixteenth century, intricately carved in ivory. This was the age of wheellock firearms, and these powder horns, used to hold gunpowder, would have been carried by the nobility on hunting expeditions. Common soldiers had to settle for more basic models.

I discovered these beauties at the Museo Lazaro Galdiano here in Madrid, the same place I saw that amazing roll top desk from my last post. They have a large collection of art, arms and armor, sculpture, even retro toys!

To see more of the museum's collection, check out my post on the Black Gate blog on the Museo Lazaro Galdiano.

This one seems to have been carved out of an animal leg bone. Nothing went to waste in those days!

Military History Photo Friday: Armor in the Museo Cerralbo, Madrid

This week over at Black Gate I blogged about the amazing collection at the Museo Cerralbo, Madrid. Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa (1845-1922), 17th Marquis of Cerralbo, gathered together a vast collection of art and antiquities in his mansion in Spain's capital. He had everything from old books and Roman intaglios to ornate brass lamps and suits of armor. It's now a fun museum.

Sadly, there isn't much signage in the museum and I'm not much of an expert, so I won't be able to tell you much about these pieces. If you can identify any, please drop me a line in the comments section! Hit the link above to see the full article!

Photos copyright Sean McLachlan.

A lovely suit of samurai armor.

A German zweihander (two-handed sword), plus bits of barding (horse armor), and two types of polearm--a halberd (left) and a corseque (right)

Military History Photo Friday: The Medieval Walls of Tallinn, Estonia

In keeping with the theme of this week's Travel Tuesday post about Tallinn, here are some shots of Tallinn's medieval fortifications. The old city in Estonia's capital is ringed by a 14th century wall strengthened by several towers. Large stretches of it are open to the public.

Above you can see the wall from the back, where the catwalk is open to view. The wooden hoardings are, of course, modern. Hoardings were usually temporary structures put in when there was a threat of siege. Given the conditions in Tallinn, however, I bet the sentries wanted a little extra protection not from arrows, but the elements, and kept them up all the time.

Here's what it's like walking along it. Not as sheltered as I would like! Jump the cut for more photos.

Military History Photo Friday: Luxury Armor in Vienna

I've posted here before about visiting the lovely city of Vienna, which feels like a museum with all its palaces, elegant nineteenth-century cafes, and fine squares. While I wouldn't want to live in a museum for very long, I certainly enjoyed my visit.

One interesting spot was the Royal Armory, housed like many Viennese museums in an old Hapsburg palace. It has one of the best collections of luxury arms and armor made for nobility in Europe.

Above are three suits of blued steel made in Augsburg around 1570. Blued steel is created by heating the metal to 300°C, polishing it, and reheating it to 300°C again. It creates an attractive finish but doesn't make the steel stronger.

Below are two other blued steel harnesses with gold inlay, and a shield that you wouldn't want to use in battle. They were made around 1575 for Don Juan de Austria, the illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, back when the empire included Spain. He led the Spanish to victory over the Ottomans in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, the same battle where Cervantes got wounded.

For more on this amazing collection, check out my post on Black Gate about The Royal Armory of Vienna.


Photos copyright Sean McLachlan.

Travel Tuesday: Medieval Paintings in Salamanca Cathedral, Spain

Christ enthroned above the terrors of Hell.

In my last Travel Tuesday post, I shared some photos of Spanish heraldry from Salamanca. This medieval university town is filled with early art. The cathedral is full of medieval wall paintings dating to the 13th and 14th century.

Jump the cut for more photos!

Military History Photo Friday: Armor at the Wallace Collection, London

This open helmet is called a barbute and dates to 15th century Italy. It would have been worn by a regular infantryman of the upper rank. I've also seen period paintings showing nobility wearing them. The more elegant helmet below is called a bascinet. It's from northern Italy from around 1380-1410. As you can see, it doesn't offer any flat surfaces for a weapon to get a direct hit on. This would have been for a more wealthy warrior. The mail aventail protects the neck and shoulders, but of course there would have been plate armor for those areas too.

Both of these helmets are from the Wallace Collection in London. For more arms and armor from the Wallace Collection, check out my post over at Black Gate.

Photos copyright Sean McLachlan.

Travel Tuesday: Old Family Crests in Salamanca, Spain

As I mentioned in my last Travel Tuesday post, I recently visited Salamanca, Spain. This historic university town is filled with old buildings from the Renaissance. Many noble families lived here and you can still see their crests on the sides of some of their palaces.

In Spanish, the term for the historical town center is casco viejo, which translates to "old helmet." There are a lot of old helmets in Salmanca!

Jump the cut for more.

Travel Tuesday: The Medieval University of Salamanca, Spain

The Escuelas Mayores building, Salamanca.

Last weekend my wife and I headed off to Salamanca, Spain. It's a wonderful old historic city best known for its university founded in the 13th century. Here is the facade of the university's most famous building.

Like Oxford, most of the university buildings are built around a courtyard. Jump the cut to step inside.

Military History Photo Friday: German Armor from the Sixteenth Century

These two lovely suits of armor are in the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History, in Brussels, Belgium. They have a splendid collection of medieval arms and armor that will be the subject of an upcoming post on the Black Gate blog. I'll give you the link when it goes live next week.

The suit on the left was made in Germany in the third quarter of the 16th century, while the one on the right was made in the famous workshop of Michael Witz of Innsbruck around 1555. The helmet in between is also German from the mid-16th century.

Sadly I can't tell you more because the signage was all in French and Dutch. I puzzled out as much as I could and came to the odd discovery that while I studied both French and German many years ago, I had an easier time reading the Dutch because it was close to German and my German was always better than my French!

Oh, and what's that gauntlet on the lower right getting up to?

Military History Photo Friday: Elaborate Renaissance Arms and Armor

Here are a couple of fine pieces from The Wallace Collection, one of the best private collections of art in London. They have an especially good arms and armor gallery. It's well worth checking out if you're in London.

On the top we have, according to the signage, "a mace of the morning star type, damascened in gold with arabesques and emblematical figures within cartouches of silver piqué." Well that clears that up. It's from Milan c.1560.

Below are some fine parade helmets from the same century, also made in Italy and of the type known as "antique armor", which imitated the styles of parade armor from ancient Rome.

Teutonic Treasure and Archaeology

When I'm not blogging here, I often do guest blogs at other sites. Recently I did a post for the Black Gate blog on The Church and Treasury of the Teutonic Order, Vienna. Black Gate is a leading fantasy magazine that runs a great blog on all things genre. Last year they published my fantasy novella The Quintessence of Absence, which you can download as a free ebook.

I'm also now the "Archaeology Expert" on the The Scout Project, a fun blog run by former Gadling coworker Libby Zay. It covers all sorts of subjects and encourages readers to go out and explore for themselves. She just interviewed me about my archaeology career.

Expect to see more from me on both these blogs in coming weeks!

Book Review: Leo Africanus

Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful novel. This is everything a historical novel should be--rich in period detail, meticulously researched, and filled with believable characters that bring the era alive.
Based on the true story of one of the great Muslim travelers, we get to see the Songhai Empire, the capture of Egypt by the Ottomans, and the high culture and low morals of Renaissance Rome.
The real Leo Africanus is an enigmatic figure and there are large gaps in what we know of his life. Maalouf fills these with all sorts of adventures and meetings with famous people and weaves fiction and history seamlessly together.
Maalouf explains everything well and the reader is never lost despite the flurry of names and places. At times I could have used some more detail and felt that even at 360 densely set pages that it was a bit rushed. I would have been happy for it to have been twice as long!
If you like historical novels and have an interest in the Muslim world or Renaissance history, be sure to pick up this modern classic.

View all my reviews

Military History Photo Friday: A Combination German Halberd Pistol

On my recent trip to Vienna I got to see some great museums. One of my favorites was the collection of Hapsburg arms and armor at the Neue Berg. I'm working on an article about this place, which has one of the greatest collections of medieval arms and armor anywhere.

Here's one interesting item: a combination halberd and double-barreled rifle made in Germany c.1580. You can see it at the top of a case of other early firearms.

Here's a closeup. As you can see it has two wheellocks, firing mechanisms that are wound up and then released by the pull of a trigger. Given the ornamentation on the halberd, I'm thinking this was intended more for show as a curio than as an actual weapon. A lot of these combination weapons have survived from the Middle Ages and Renaissance but I've never read an account of one actually being used. They all tend to be similarly ornamental, which may explain why so many have survived.

Back from Vienna!

I'm back in Spain after a wonderful five days in Vienna. I'll be publishing more about my trip here and on other sites, but at the moment let me just leave you with this stunning piece of Renaissance art from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This is the most impressive art museum I've ever been to, beating even the Met and the Prado. They have a huge collection of fine art from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance.

This lapis lazuli bowl with gold, rubies, emeralds, pearls, garnets, and enamel was made in Milan around 1565. The dragon looks pretty Chinese, doesn't it? Marco Polo had made his voyages two hundred years before and there was some contact between Italy and China by this time. I've never seen a piece like this, though! The Kunsthistorisches Museum has hundreds of pieces like this.