  About the Artwork
  
  
  This helmet’s distinctive form, which fits tightly around the face and silhouettes the wearer’s eyes, nose, and mouth, identifies it as a barbut. Rivet holes along the rough outline of its Y-shaped facial opening reveal that it once had a streamlined steel border. Popular during the mid-1400s, the barbut style strongly echoes ancient Greek helmets, demonstrating that Italian armorers shared other Renaissance artists’ interest in the classical past.  
Made in Milan and signed with marks associated with a ""Master Christoforo"" (possibly Christoforo dei Seroni), the barbut also bears a faint lion of Saint Mark on its right cheek, indicating that it was once part of the Republic of Venice's city arsenal.
  
  
  Title
  Barbut
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1450 and 1460
  
  
  
  
  Makers
  
  
  (Artist)
  Italian
  (Artist)
  Master Christoforo
  
  
  
  Medium
  Steel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 10 1/4 × 7 5/8 × 9 11/16 inches (26 × 19.4 × 24.6 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Arms and Armor
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  53.204
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
