J. F. Hayward

A Netherlandish design for a

parade shield

The draWing which torms the subjeot ot this note

was acquired about one hundred years ago by the

Museum for the modest sum of six Gulden; unfortunately

 no information about Its provenance is

available, lt is executed in brown ink, helghtened

with blue wash, and shows the lower half of a

decorative shield in Mannerist style of the third

quarter of the sixteenth century (lig. 1). The drawing

 was originally completed by an upper half

which is now lost, presumably destroyed. lt is now

stuck down on stiffer paper and has been cut both

at bottom and sides; as a result the point of the

shield and the upper edge on the sldes are lost.

Further, the drawlng shows no border, While the

decoration runs so olose to the edge that some

border would have been necessary. This may have

been cut away, but may have been omitted intentlonally

 as it was not to be decorated. The drawing

is executed to the actual size of the shield,

measuring 39.8 crn. by 43 cm. Allowing for the

upper half and for the missing point, the dimenslons

 of the shield, If it were ever made, would

have been approximately 84 cm. by 46 cm. The

drawing is executed on two sheets of paperjoined

horizontally, a third would have been necessary

for the upper part of the shield. N0 Watermark can

be seen, as the drawing has been stuck down on

another sheet.

The design is lncomplete as blank spaces have

been left for the decoration ot four plaques, the

lower one circular, the upper oval, flanked by two

smaller ovalst These would on the completed

shield have been decorated with flgure subjects or

masks. Wrought separately, they would be attached

 to the shield by rlvets, as they are on the contemporary

 shield lllustrated in fig. 2. They were

probably left blank so that the cholce of subject

that deoorated them could be determined in consultation

 with the eventual owner of the shield. An

alternative explanatlon is that their design was

lelt to a speclallst Who possessed the requisite

knowledge of classical history or mythology. The

faot that the sublects of the plaques are not

shown indicates that the design was a preliminary

one. lts relatively good state of preservation also

suggests that it was never used ln the Workshop.

We know from Thomas's investigations of the

drawings for armour lrom the Workshop of Etienne

Delaune" that the designs used by the armourer

when decorating his plates were executed in red

chalk and less oarefully finished. These designs,

which are preserved in the Staatliche Graphische

Sammlung, Munich, are approximately contemporary

 With the Vienna drawing and represent another

 aspect of the same northern Mannerist fashion.

A number of them have been identified by Thomas

as designs for armours of Henry ll, some of Which

were, hoWever, never executed on account of the

kingks premature death in 1559. In his studies of

the Delaune designs Thomas gives a detailed account

 of the serles of shields of oval, pointed or

oartouohe form connected with the French kingß.

Their composltlon ls fairly consistent and shows a

oentra! panel or panels within a wide border filled

With an interlaolng band enclosing trophies of

arms alternating With bunches ot frult, Interrupted

above and below by figures of manacled prisoners,

 While the centre point at iop and bottom is

marked by a grotesque mask. The composition of

16

1

the Vienna design follows this model. Two of the

Delaune drawings are particularly olose to this desln,

 showing the same pointed proflle and the

decoration of trophles of arms alternatlng With

bunches of fruit, whlle at the base are figures

wlthln strapwork and a grotesque mask. One has

been identified by Thomas as a prelimlnary design

for a shield wrought for King Henri ll which is now

In the Metropolitan Museum, New Yorkt This

drawing shows the detalls of the ornament contalned

 wlthin a continuous interlacing strap or

band of Flechtwerk, Whereas in the second drawlng

 (tlg. 3) this band is rendered In higher relief

wlth Rollwerk termlnals. Rollwerk is also a feature

of the Vienna design, though the relief is less

marked and the scale smaller. Furthermore, ln place

of the puny nude prlsoners of the Munich drawlngs,

 the Vienna design shows Roman officers

whose hands and one foot are bound to the ends

of strapwork scrolls. Slmilar bound figures are to

be seen on some of the extant shields in the

French series, as, for instance the Skokloster

shieldä and it seems probable that the master of

the Vienna drawing drew his inspiratlon from an

actual shield rather than from one of the Munich

drawings.

Delaune's armour designs had considerable intluence

 outside the French court circle, in particular

in the city of AntWerp, where they were followed

by the goldsmith, Eliseus Libbaerts, who decorated

 two superb armours for Eric XIV, klng of Sweden,

 which after ourious peregrinatlons ended up

in the Historisches Museum, Dresden". The close

relationship with Delaune": designs, which adapted

 the Fontainebleau style to the needs of the armourer,

 is readily explicable, for numerous Antwerp

 graphic masters had Worked in Fontainebleau

 and publlshed prints after the Fontainebleau

 decorations on their return to thelr native

city. Libbaerts mostly adhered to the Delaune

manner, but sometlmes shoWed a preference for

the typical Netherlandlsh Rollwerk ornamen

er than the Flechtwerk which frames the

ment of the French armours. Libbaerts L

Rollwerk cartouches is most evident on the

armour he decorated for King Eric XIV of SVl

The style of the Vienna drawing, unlike tt

laune drawings, does not derive directly fron

talnebleau but rather from the Netherlandis

sion of that style. The Netherlandish origin

drawlng has long been recognised for, aroul

lower edge of the missing central panel is l

scription, presumably intended to pass as a:

ture: Col. Lart. The style of the lettering dOl

aocord with the apparent period of the dre

circa 1550 to 1580, and this attribution to th

werp family of engravers, Collaert, is unoo

ing. Whlle Hans Collaert and his son of the

name are best known as engravers of jewelle

signs, Adriaen Collaert (1560-1618) worke:

later manner than that exhibited in the Flollw

the Vienna drawing. The chief protagonlsts a

the Flemish masters of Mannerist ornamen

ed on Fontainebleau were Cornelis Flori:

Hans Vredeman de Vries, both ot AntWerpY.

absence ot positive evidence that either of

masters produced armour designs, it would l

wise to make a positive attribution to one 4

other. However, just as Etlenne Delaune w:

trusted With the designs for decorating tl

mours ot King Henri ll o1 France, so also is it

that a commission for work of comparable:

dour in the Netherlands would have gone tot

the leading masters of ornament or to a me

of his Workshop. While the Fiollwerk frarne

cartouches of the drawing are close to the

style, those of other Netherlandish armours.

ments of armour such as the shield (fig. 4) se

derlve from the engravings of Vredeman de

lt is not difficult to place the Vienna drawing

context; it clearly belongs to the group of an

of Flemish origin, of which only one bears a: