A FINE ITALIAN EMBOSSED AND GILDED STEEL PARADE SHIELD

A FINE ITALIAN EMBOSSED AND GILDED STEEL PARADE SHIELD

IN MILANESE RENAISSANCE STYLE, 19TH CENTURY

of convex circular form, with acanthus detail to the centre with a projecting boss of leaves and berries, the main field decorated in relief with an elaborate arrangement of strapwork and foliate scrolls inhabited by winged beasts, putti and grotesque masks, with four oval panels with depictions of biblical and apocryphal stories comprising: Judith and Holofernes, David and Goliath, Samson massacring the Philistines, and Samson and Delilah with a sunken border richly embellished with mythical creatures and with trophies of arms on a gilded ground, with a rope twist edge and a fringed velvet lining and later wooden mount

62cm diameter

Provenance

Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918) the Bronzina Room, Halton House, Buckinghamshire

Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942)

Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009)

The Trustees of Exbury House

Literature

Rothschild Archive, London, Manuscript: 000/174/C/3, Christie, Manson & Woods Probate Valuation of 'The Estate of Alfred C. de Rothschild, Esq. C.V.O. Deceased, Halton House Tring', 1918. Listed as 'An Italian circular shield chiselled with panels of scriptural subjects, trophies and arabesques on a gilt groundwork, 16th century, £250.0.0.''

Catalogue Note

This shield shows design influences from the parade armour made by Giovanni Battista Panzeri and Marco Antonio Fava, 1559 for Archduke Ferdinand II in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna.