Medieval Arms and Armor: A Pictorial Archive

by J. H. von Hefner-Alteneck

Overview

A renowned 19th-century cultural historian and specialist on the Middle Ages, J. H. Hefner-Alteneck spent much of his life observing the influence of art on many aspects of human life, including weaponry. His illustrations for this handsome archive — drawn with incredible exactitude — depict a wide array of medieval weapons and armor dating from the early ninth century to the mid-1700s.
Adapted primarily from decorative ornamentation on burial monuments and manuscripts, hundreds of finely executed images depict authentic shields, swords, crossbows, helmets, and highly ornate suits of body armor for knights and their steeds. Newly translated descriptive notes, extracted from the original German text, identify the subjects.
First published more than 100 years ago, this meticulously rendered study remains an invaluable source of permission-free illustrations for artists and designers and an indispensable reference for scholars, collectors, and hobbyists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486155890
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	12/26/2012
Series:	Dover Pictorial Archive
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	111 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Read an Excerpt

Medieval Arms and Armor

A Pictorial Archive

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By J. H. Hefner-Alteneck

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2004 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-15589-0

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FOREWORD

It has been my long-standing goal to investigate the influence of art on all human endeavors from the early Middle Ages to recent times. I began by observing the immediate environment of a person's life: clothing, jewelry, and weaponry. The last I found to be particular interesting because weapons served a practical and indispensable defense function yet were also designed with an elevated artistic sense. As the most important aesthetic objects of the knighthood, they give us a sense of the style and design of any given period.

Interest in weaponry has been growing rapidly in the last few years. Thus I thought it a good time to excerpt the sections on weapons from my larger work, Costume, Art, and Tools from the Early Middle Ages to the End of the 18th Century to make the present book. I have rearranged the plates in chronological order and rewritten the accompanying texts to include new research.

I have not used photography in my work for two reasons: when I began the project it wasn't yet advanced enough to implement; and I believe that it presents objects from a somewhat distorted perspective, which doesn't give the reader a proper idea of their form.

As far as sources for my illustrations, I only used original objects that are clearly representative of their time. The absolute oldest sources generally exist in the form of drawings, which are often better understood when the objects that they depict are unearthed. Beginning with the fourteenth century, burial monuments become important, usually depicting the deceased in full knightly regalia with painstaking detail. From the end of the fifteenth century through to the Thirty Years War, extant examples of plate armor are the most authoritative sources for the study of weapons.

DR. J. H. VON HEFNER-ALTENECK

Munich

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Copyright Page,
foreword,
Medieval Art through Eighteenth-Century Art,
Pictorial Archive,