Gauntlet for the Left Hand
1575/90
Medium
Steel, gold, silver, and brass
Dimensions
16.5 × 14.6 × 19.7 cm (6 1/2 × 5 3/4 × 7 3/4 in.)
Classification
suit-gauntlet
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
116446
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Intended purely for spectacle, parade armor represented the pinnacle of the armorer’s art. This fragmentary gauntlet for the right hand was part of such a harness. The workshop of Lucio Piccinino produced several similar commissions for various dukes and princes of the Habsburg court. The work of several craftsmen, this gauntlet merges the arts of armoring and goldsmithing. Here the technique of gold-and-silver overlay is combined with embossing—pushing the thin steel from both inside and out. W...