Greek Armor is one of the subjects that caught my attention the most as I read the story of the Iliad which mentioned how physical and tasking the job of the soldiers was. The descriptions about the bloodiness of the battles are something that engaged me as the reader into the story and made me think about the seriousness of how critically important it was to have outstanding battle skills, strength and nevertheless a great armor at the time.
On my visit to the Metropolitan Museum I found many types of armor, from medieval European to Asian Samurai, and among these, the Greek armor. The Greek armor was composed of body armor, helmets, swords, spears, shields, axes, other bloody weapons, and a few extra gears. The very few pieces that I found were helmet and body armor.
The body armor is one of the most interesting as it is made of very detailed rendering of the body on metal, specifying the contour of the chest and muscles shape of a real person. It is composed of two meticulously made metal plates with the composition of the male torso; one plate covered the front and the other the back, compressing around the mid section of the body and aligning itself perfectly to the soldier’s physique. The material used for the construction of the item shown in the picture is bronze. Bronze it is known to be harder and more durable than iron and brass therefore it was an excellent choice for weapons and protection at the time. According to the MET museum, this item was made in the 4th century B.C. by a metalworker named Pistias whose “customers stressed their need for a proper fit and were willing to pay the price for it”.
Each piece was literally a work of art taken to battle to fight the enemy in style. In present time when have we seen so much attention given to the decorations on a weapon? If one looks closely to the images one can see how elaborated the decoration on these items is.
The helmet, a 7th century B.C. piece made out of bronze is “is a modification of a Corinthian type, having a profiled cheekpiece and lacking the usual long nose guard” that other helmet of the time used to have, as Metropolitan Museum describes it. On the helmet we can see encrypted images all around. The image shown on the helmet is a standing lion. This creature was symbolic and was supposed to bring calmness and strength to the warrior in the battle. I also found that these well-decorated pieces might also have being subjects of dedication to Greek sanctuaries.1
The dedication placed into the making of these pieces doesn’t fall short of making them a work of art, along with the different armor from other eras that is shown in the Metropolitan Museum. This is something that needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
On my visit to the Metropolitan Museum I found many types of armor, from medieval European to Asian Samurai, and among these, the Greek armor. The Greek armor was composed of body armor, helmets, swords, spears, shields, axes, other bloody weapons, and a few extra gears. The very few pieces that I found were helmet and body armor.
The body armor is one of the most interesting as it is made of very detailed rendering of the body on metal, specifying the contour of the chest and muscles shape of a real person. It is composed of two meticulously made metal plates with the composition of the male torso; one plate covered the front and the other the back, compressing around the mid section of the body and aligning itself perfectly to the soldier’s physique. The material used for the construction of the item shown in the picture is bronze. Bronze it is known to be harder and more durable than iron and brass therefore it was an excellent choice for weapons and protection at the time. According to the MET museum, this item was made in the 4th century B.C. by a metalworker named Pistias whose “customers stressed their need for a proper fit and were willing to pay the price for it”.
Each piece was literally a work of art taken to battle to fight the enemy in style. In present time when have we seen so much attention given to the decorations on a weapon? If one looks closely to the images one can see how elaborated the decoration on these items is.
The helmet, a 7th century B.C. piece made out of bronze is “is a modification of a Corinthian type, having a profiled cheekpiece and lacking the usual long nose guard” that other helmet of the time used to have, as Metropolitan Museum describes it. On the helmet we can see encrypted images all around. The image shown on the helmet is a standing lion. This creature was symbolic and was supposed to bring calmness and strength to the warrior in the battle. I also found that these well-decorated pieces might also have being subjects of dedication to Greek sanctuaries.1
The dedication placed into the making of these pieces doesn’t fall short of making them a work of art, along with the different armor from other eras that is shown in the Metropolitan Museum. This is something that needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
Works Cited
Cuirass (Body Armor) [Greek, Apulian] (1999.36.3.3), The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Personal photograph by author. March 2010.
Helmet [Greek, Cretan] (1989.281.49), The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Personal photograph by author. March 2010.
1 "Helmet [Greek, Cretan] (1989.281.49)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1989.281.49-.50 (March 2010)
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