The helmet was intended for the Scharfrennen, a joust fought by two mounted contestants armed with sharp lances. The conjoined initials L and M, for Louis II of Hungary (1506–1526) and his wife, Maria of Austria, are featured prominently in the decoration. Discovered in the collection of the former imperial arsenal in Istanbul, the helmet was presumably captured by the Turks when they overran much of eastern Europe between 1526 and 1529. Louis II was killed in the battle of Mohács on August 29, 1526, while defending Hungary against the Turkish invasion.
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Title:Jousting Sallet (Rennhut) Made for Louis II (1506–1526), King of Hungary and Bohemia
Armorer:Attributed to Kolman Helmschmid (German, Augsburg 1471–1532)
Date:ca. 1525
Geography:Augsburg
Culture:German, Augsburg
Medium:Steel, copper alloy, gold
Dimensions:H. 10 in. (25.4 cm); W. 15 in. (38.1 cm); D. 10 in. (25.4 cm); Wt. 9 lb. (4082 g)
Classification:Helmets
Credit Line:Bashford Dean Memorial Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander McMillan Welch, 1929
Accession Number:29.153.1
Ottoman Arsenal of St. Irene, Constantinople, Turkey (until 1920; sold to Dean); Bashford Dean, New York (1920–d. 1928; sold by his estate to Mr. and Mrs. Welch); Mr. and Mrs. Alexander McMillan Welch, New York (1929; their gift to MMA).
Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–March 18, 1953, no. 25.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 18–June 7, 1953, no. 25.
Pittsburgh. Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute. "Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1953–April 1954, no. 25.
Burgkmair, Hans, Alfred Aspland, and Adam von Bartsch. Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian I. Manchester: Published for the Holbein society by A. Brothers, 1873. pls. 50–52, 54–55 (similar sallets illustrated).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stephen V. Grancsay, and Carl Otto von Kienbusch. The Bashford Dean Collection of Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Portland, ME: Southworth Press for the Armor and Arms Club of New York City, 1933. pp. 136–37, no. 52, pl. XXXII.
Haenel, Erich. "Literatur: Carl Otto von Kienbusch und Stephan V. Grancsay: The Bashford Dean Collection off Arms and Armor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Portland, Maine 1933. (review)." Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen– und Kostümkunde, Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde, 14, n.s.v. 5 pp. 111–12.
Grancsay, Stephen V. Loan Exhibition of Mediaeval and Renaissance Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1953. p. 14, no. 25, ill.
Nickel, Helmut. "The Tournament." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1973–74), pp. 84–85, ill.
Nickel, Helmut. Ullstein-Waffenbuch: eine kulturhistorische Waffenkunde mit Markenverzeichnis. Berlin: Ullstein, 1974. p. 87, ill.
Grancsay, Stephen V., and Stuart W. Pyhrr. Arms & Armor: Essays by Stephen V. Grancsay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1920–1964. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. pp. 59–67, fig. 21.10.
Pyhrr, Stuart W. "European Armor from the Imperial Ottoman Arsenal." Metropolitan Museum Journal (1989), pp. 102–5, 108–9b, figs. 15d, 32–35.
Nickel, Helmut. "Arms and Armor from the Permanent Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Summer 1991), pp. 16, 64, ill.
Krause, Stefan. "Der Augusburger Druckgraphiker Daniel Hopfer (1471–1536) als Waffendekorateur." Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien (2011–12), p. 66, n. 84.
Pyhrr, Stuart W. "Of Arms and Men: Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan, 1912–2012." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Summer 2012), pp. 20–21, figs. 27–28.
Gulyás, Borbála. "Jousting Under the Holy Crown: Tournaments at the Hungarian Royal Court in the Sixteenth Century." In Tournaments: A Thousand Years of Chivalry, edited by Stefan Krause. London: Thomas Del Mar Ltd., 2022. pp. 66–67, 72–73, 80, figs. 1, 6, n. 39.
Papp, Júlia. "The Armor Formerly in the Viennese Imperial Zeughaus Attrbuted to Louis II of Hungary in the Hungarian Cultural History." Waffen- und Kostümkunde: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde (2022), pp. 74, 90, fig. 7, n. 34.
Armor made from steel plates that covered almost the entire body was developed around the late fourteenth century in Northern Italy, and spread north of the Alps soon after. Most early examples were plain, but by the middle of the fifteenth century armorers began to emboss surfaces with ridges and grooves and add gilt copper-alloy applications, transferring current tastes in civilian fashion to create sumptuous garments of steel.
Helmet and reinforcing pieces attributed to Kolman Helmschmid (German, Augsburg 1471–1532)
ca. 1510–20 and later
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