Young man in armour
(early 17th century)

• ENGLAND

For a nobleman in the sixteenth century, armour was the supreme symbol of honour, wealth and status. This portrait of a youth reflects the extent to which armour had become subject to fashion. His marble breastplate features the exotic masks and vegetable forms (grotteschi) discovered in the recently excavated first-century Golden House of Nero. Great armourers, such as the Milanese Lucio Piccinino (active 1575–90), transferred these motifs onto parade armour using relief, embossing and damascening techniques. The sculptor’s interest in imitating the prized decorative surfaces of Renaissance armour seems to exceed his interest in the youth’s physiognomy, which is almost bland by comparison.