Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion

During the golden age of European plate armor, from the late 14th until the early 17th centuries, finely crafted steel defenses became powerful status symbols. Beyond its associations with knightly honor and courage, luxury armor increasingly signified the wealth and taste of its wearer. Similar to today’s fashion, armor could express its owner’s personality or background and even spark international trends among the glittering courts of Europe. Like portraits, armors were objects of display and treasured heirlooms, preserved in the collections of their owners’ families.

Guests of Honor: Armor as Fashion will highlight these facets of the art of armor by displaying the spectacular Portrait of Jean II de Croÿ, Count of Solre, by Juan van der Hamen y Léon (1596–1631) alongside elements of the magnificent gilded parade armor forged in Brussels and worn by de Croÿ in the painting.

Through loans from the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Valenciennes, France, and a distinguished private collection in Spain, this exhibition will reunite the portrait with the armor it depicts for the first time in over two centuries and offer the first-ever opportunity for North American audiences to see these exceptional examples of Baroque art.