'Mars and the Muses': the Renaissance Art of Armour

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, most of the richest noblemen in Europe were dedicated patrons of the armourer’s art. Armour was a kind of visual language used to project aristocratic identity, prestige and power. The armour-making process demanded both fantastic skill in the sculpting of iron and steel and mastery of decorative techniques such as acid-etching and mercury-gilding.

This lecture serves as an introduction to the subject of armour - protective equipment for fighting which was also, crucially, an expressive art-form.

How to book this event:

For more information about attending this event, please email us at info@theartssocietymedway.org.uk

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Tobias Capwell

Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, including Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011; Apollo Magazine Book of the Year 2012); The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520-1630, ex. cat. (2012); Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015; Military History Monthly Illustrated Book of the Year 2017); and most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television, most recently on A Stitch in Time (2018; BBC4); as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014; C4), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012; BBC4). In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.

GALLERY