The fantastic appearance of this helmet, with its visor shaped like a griffin's head and the comb of the bowl raised into the form of a serpent's body, indicates that it was part of an elaborate pageant armor.
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Title:Close Helmet
Date:ca. 1550
Geography:Milan or Brescia
Culture:Italian, Milan or Brescia
Medium:Steel, gold, silver
Dimensions:H. 11 3/4 in. (29.9 cm); W. 14 in. (35.6 cm); D. 14 in. (35.6 cm); Wt. 6 lb. 14 oz. (3128 g)
Classification:Helmets
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1929
Accession Number:29.17
Ex. coll.: Ludovico Moscardo, Verona, Italy; Counts Miniscalchi; Counts Erizo, Verona, Italy; Luigi Grassi, Florence, Italy.
Seattle, Wash. Seattle Art Museum. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 11, 1982–June 6, 1982, no. 26.
Denver, Colo. Denver Art Museum. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 18–October 10, 1982, no. 26.
San Antonio, Tex. Witte Museum of the San Antonio Museum Association. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 13, 1982–February 5, 1983, no. 26.
Minneapolis, Minn. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 24–July 31, 1983, no. 26.
San Francisco. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1983–January 28, 1984, no. 26.
Detroit, Mich. Detroit Institute of Arts. "The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 4–June 17, 1984, no. 26.
Verona. Comune di Verona. "Cangrande della Scala. La morte e il corredo di un principe nel medioevo europeo," October 23, 2004–January 23, 2005.
Note Overo Memorie Del Museo Del Conte Lodovico Moscardo Nobile Veronese. Vol. II. Verona: Andrea Rossi, 1672. p. 434.
Miniscalchi, Marco. Catalogo Degli Oggetti Presentati Alla Esposizione D'Arte Antica e Moderna Nella Occasione Della Fiera di Beneficenza. Verona: Stabilimento Tipografico di G. Civelli, February 19–23, 1881. p. 8, no. 50.
American Art Association and Luigi Grassi. Italian Art of the Quattrocento and High Renaissance. New York: American Art Association, January 18–19, 1929. no. 239.
Grancsay, Stephen V. "An Embossed Parade Helmet." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin XIV, no. 8 p. 209.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Helmut Nickel, Stuart W. Pyhrr, Leonid Tarassuk, and American Federation of Arts. The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Exhibition. New York: The Federation, 1982. pp. 21, 66–68, no. 26, 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. 47–50, fig. 16.1.
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