Gothic Breastplate
Unknown Artist
c. 1485
Medium
steel
Dimensions
50.5 × 35.8 × 15.8 cm
Classification
Arms and Armor
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance
Accession Number
1916.29
About this artwork
Individual armor elements, like this breastplate, were shaped in ways that would make their surfaces as deflecting as possible. The contours of this breastplate, along with the pronounced vertical ridge down its center, were for precisely this purpose.