About the Artwork
Using small saws and files, the armorer skillfully pierced the hard plates of steel that make up this backplate, transforming it into lace-like tracery that echoes forms in Gothic architecture and precious metalwork from the fifteenth century. The sprays of sculpted flutes that radiate outward from the slim waist recall the pleats of the fine linen shirts or padded jackets called doublets that were fashionable in the late 1400s.
This backplate and its matching breastplate (also in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts) bear the marks of Lorenz Helmschmid, considered one of the greatest armorers of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Together, the two pieces of armor form a cuirass, or torso defense, for a dramatic and specialized type of joust invented during the 1480s at the court of the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The decorative motifs that adorn this backplate find nearly exact parallels in armor that Helmschmid forged for Maximilian himself, now preserved in Vienna.
Backplate for the Joust of War with exploding shields (Geshifttartschen-Rennen)
ca. 1480
Lorenz Helmschmid
active 1467 - 1515/16
German
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Steel, copper alloy, leather
Overall (Backplate): 20 13/16 × 14 × 7 1/2 inches, 5.1 pounds (52.9 × 35.6 × 19.1 cm, 2.3 kg)
Arms and Armor
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
Gift of William Randolph Hearst Foundation
53.193.4
Public Domain
Markings
Stamped on right shoulder: maker’s mark of Lorenz Helmschmid [a helm for the Joust of Peace, crested with a cross] Stamped on the right shoulder: inspection mark of Augsburg armorers’ guild [a fir cone upon a pedestal]
Provenance
By 1869, Princes Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Schloss Sigmaringen (Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany);1929, sold to (Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc.) (New York, New York, USA);
1930, sold to William Randolph Hearst (Los Angeles, California, USA);
1951, bequeathed to the William Randolph Hearst Foundation (New York, New York, USA);
1953–present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
William Randolph Hearst Foundation (by 1951);
Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Demmin, Auguste. Guide des amateurs d’armes et armures anciennes par ordre chronologique depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’a nos jours. Paris, 1869, p. 211 (ill.).
Laking, Guy Francis. A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries. London: G. Bell and sons, ltd., 1920, vol. II, pp. 215, 128, (ill.) 215, (fig. 247).
Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America." Connoisseur 122, no. 516 (December 1948): 118–124, p. 118 (ill.).
Robinson, Francis W. "A Gift of Arms and Armor from the Collection of William Randolph Hearst." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 33, no. 1 (1953-54): 1–5, pp. 2, 4 (ill.).
Gamber, Ortwin. "Der Turnierharnish zur Zeit König Maximilians I, und das Thunsche Skizzenbuch." Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 53 (1957): 3–70, pp. 43, 46, figs. 51–53 (ill.).
Levkoff, Mary L. Hearst, the Collector. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 2008, pp. 159–160, cat. 20 (ill.) [entry by S. Pyrhh]
Quérée, Jennifer. “The Invisible Knight: A Journey of Discovery.” Records of the Canterbury Museum 25 (2011), pp. 67–89; pp. 76–78, fig. 11 (ill.).
Pyhrr, Stuart W. “‘I Would Prefer Gothic.’ William Randolph Hears as an Armor Collector.” The Spring 2014 Park Lane Arms Fair (2014): pp. 12-13, (ill.) p. 13.
The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, pp. 235-236, cat. 127, (ill.).
Kirchhoff, Chassica. “Detroit Steel: Re-examining and Rehousing the Arms and Armor Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts,” ICOMAM Magazine, no. 25 (June 2021), pp. 15–16. (figs. 1, 2)
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Lorenz Helmschmid, Backplate for the Joust of War with exploding shields (Geshifttartschen-Rennen), ca. 1480, steel, copper alloy, leather. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of William Randolph Hearst Foundation, 53.193.4.
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