A Close Helmet of Heavy Cavalry Type

c. 1570 – 80

Northern Italy, possibly Brescia. Steel, gold, copper alloy. 35.5 cm / 14 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Europe

ABrescian helmet with a comparable arrangement of visor and bevor forms a part of a cavalry armour made for a boy, in the Royal Armoury, Turin (B 29). Further examples found on Italian cavalry close helmets of overall corresponding form are seen in the Wallace Collection, London, on a helmet of circa 1585 (A 59), and on another made by Pompeo della Cesa of Milan, circa 1580, in the Museo Nationale di Ravenna (n. inv. 1729).