The helmet, or celada de engole, has a large mask on the visor, and at the sides Victory and Fame; on the outside part of the collar, Strength and Prudence, and on the other, the Ducal Crown; on the breastplate the figure of Fortuna, accompanied by two winged genii, with a phylactery on which is the word SPANIA; and in different places, Justice, Temperance, and various small symbolic figures, which may also be seen on the backplate, the pauldrons, and the armlets. It bears no armourer’s mark.
B2. Infantry morion, forged in one piece, with similar decoration to the preceding; a mask, in front on the forehead figures representing Abundance and Prosperity, grotesques, and trophies.
B3. Shield, for combat on foot. A medallion covers the centre, on which are represented Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars destroying the Moors; around are four Ephesian Dianas on estipites (pedestals in the form of inverted pyramids), and between them an equal number of panels with warlike and mythological subjects: the decoration of the groundwork is completed by other subjects similar to those of the preceding pieces. Diameter 0.39.
The half-suit B4-5 (plate 84), also presented to the successor of Philip II. in his childhood, is believed to be the work of Lucio Picinino. The decoration is very beautiful and less profuse than in the preceding example. On the wide middle band of the breastplate may be seen a mask upheld by two nude figures, the goddess Pallas, satyrs, &c. Festoons with masks extend from band to band. The pauldrons bear grotesque masks, and the coudes symbolical figures.
The harness, A291-294 (plate 54), seems to have been made in Milan by Lucio Picinino, and was presented by the Duke of Savoy to Philip III. “Although it belongs to the decadent period of the Italian Renaissance,” remarks the Conde de Valencia, “it is assuredly one of the handsomest pieces of work turned out by the Milanese armourers of the late sixteenth century.” The panoply is unfortunately very incomplete, owing to the strange course having been adopted of dressing with parts of it the corpse of the Infante Carlos, who died in 1632.
The whole suit is profusely decorated with reliefs and gold and silver damascene work. The burgonet displays three masks—on the visor (which is in two pieces), and at the base of the skull. The upper edge of the breastplate is roped. In the centre of the chest is an embossed mask; beneath it a panel with the figure of Victory, seemingly held in position by chains, and by two male figures. Below it and on either side are grotesque masks. The pauldrons (one of which has a bufe or passe-garde), the tassets, cuisses, genouillères, and demi-jambs are similarly decorated with cartouches and medallions with martial and allegorical subjects.
“The rich covering for the horse is also incomplete. It is composed of pieces of the two distinct bards mentioned in the Inventory, one ‘inlaid with gold and silver, fluted, and in relief, all adorned with blue stones (lapis lazuli) and yellow stones and illuminated crystals’; and the other, ‘with the same pieces as the one above, lacking nothing, and this is of gilded iron in relief.’
“Saddles, chanfrons, and mainfaires of both bards are preserved, these sets being that of the dragon chanfron on the horse A190, and that with the inlaid work on the present figure; but the cruppers and poitrels of both have been broken up, and their component parts have been mostly dispersed abroad. What was preserved in the Armoury, now without stones or crystals, together with other remains found in the ancient edifice after the fire, constitute the crupper and poitrel of this horse.”
To the first decade of the seventeenth century belongs the suit (A338-A346) attributed to the third Duke of Escalona. It has a tilting helmet with visor in two pieces, and a shutter in the ventail; the leg-armour is still complete. The elaborate ornamentation, consisting of wide vertical bands etched, alternating with trophies, medallions, and lacework, has lost much of its richness, owing to the disappearance of the blackening and gilding.
The horse’s barding is older than the armour; it is of the early sixteenth century, and the style of the ornamentation appears to be Spanish Renaissance. The several pieces of which it is composed are decorated with trophies, flowers, grotesques, and other devices in good taste, etched, and part of them engraved by hand. On the poitrel may be seen St. James on horseback, fighting against the Moors, accompanied by two warriors of antiquity. The chanfron has the escutcheon of the Alvarez de Toledo family, the surname of the celebrated Duke of Alba, from whom possibly it might have come.