c. 1505

Armor for use on horseback in the field

This armor is one of a few complete, or reasonably complete, European field armors surviving from the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is also the richest, latest, and most complete of the surviving works of Matthes Deutsch, a successful armorer living in the Bavarian ducal residence of Landshut. The bands along its main edges and down the center of the breastplate bear traces of etched and gilded flowers and foliage set against a fire-blued ground. The breastplate is struck with Deutsch's armorer's mark and with the inspection mark of the armorers of Landshut.