FEATURE

A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Sharp
Dressing
In Renaissance Italy, the sword became a decorative
work of art as well as a deadly weapon. With its elegant,
enigmatically detailed pommel, an early civilian
dress sword in London’s Wallace Collection testifies
to the artistic richness of such objects

WRITER TOBIAS CAPWELL

I
n the summer of 2012, the Wallace
Collection in London mounted its first
major exhibition of arms and armour.
‘The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion
and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520–
1630’ (17 May–16 September 2012) was
an important opportunity to bring foreign
treasures to London for display alongside
some of the finest swords and early fencing
books in the collection. It also offered the
chance to reassess a number of the objects
included. Despite the fact that the medieval
and Renaissance weapons held in the Wallace
Collection rank among the best catalogued
examples of such material in the world, the
2012 exhibition served as a reminder that a
great deal yet remains to be said about them.
One captivating piece that has historically
attracted little attention, but which had an
important role in the first part of the exhibition,
is a small Italian sword dating from the late
15th or early 16th century (Fig. 1). This
elegant little weapon, with its unusual pommel
set with tiny classical figures in relief, embodies
perfectly the idea that a sword was considered
a work of art as well as a weapon. While it
helped to make this crucial point in the
exhibition, this particular sword seemed in
special need of a more thorough re-assessment
than was possible in the catalogue. This article
attempts to delve deeper into its physical
nature and art-historical context.
Only 104.5cm in length, the weapon
appears to be the sole surviving example of a
specific type of early dress sword intended for
wear in a non-military, civilian context. Several
other parts of such swords are known, all
pommels apart from a guard in the British
Museum.1 However, the group has never been
discussed as a whole, and the individual
fragments, taken out of context, have some-
times been slightly misunderstood.2
The sword is composed of five parts, four
of which appear to be original elements. The
very fine, double-edged blade of flattened
diamond section has been skilfully hollow-
ground to reduce its weight as much as
possible without compromising its strength
and rigidity.3 The shoulders of the blade fit
extremely well into the gently S-curved guard
of gilt-brass,4 the arms of which are twisted
and end in terminals engraved into the form
of small quatrefoils. The original grip of dark
horn widens gradually towards the pommel,5
perhaps the most arresting part of the
weapon. Cast in brass like the guard and
gilded to match it, the pommel’s main front

32 APOLLO FEBRUARY 2013

FEATURE
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
1 Sword, c. 1490–1520
North Italian
Steel, gilt brass and horn
104.53.4cm
Wallace Collection, London
By kind permission of the
Trustees of the Wallace
Collection, London
2–3 Sword, c. 1490–1520 (details
showing front and reverse
of pommel)
North Italian
Steel, gilt brass and horn
104.53.4cm
Wallace Collection, London
By kind permission of the
Trustees of the Wallace
Collection, London
4 Hercules Pomarius
c. 1490–1510
Florence
Solid cast bronze, the base
hollow, ht 48.2cm
© Victoria and Albert Museum,
London
FEATURE
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
5 Sword Pommel, c. 1490–1520 6 Sword pommel, late 15th century
North Italian North Italian, Monogrammist IO.F.F.
Gilt bronze, diam. 5cm (active c. 1500)
National Gallery of Art, Gilt bronze, diam. 7.6cm
Washington DC, Wallace Collection, London
Samuel H. Kress Collection By kind permission of the Trustees of
the Wallace Collection, London

The reverse or ‘rear’ face of the pommel

2 3
and rear surfaces are divided into three
facetted niches, each of which contains a
classical figure in relief. Above both sets of
niches the front and rear pommel faces slope
upwards to meet each other in a gently arched
and roped ridge. Very narrow raised panels on
the pommel’s leading and trailing edges extend
from its lower edge to the base of the roped
ridge, giving very slight ‘ears’ to the pommel’s
silhouette. The surfaces of these edge panels
have been decorated with roughly carved
sprigs of foliage. A later hole has been drilled
through the pommel on one side, perhaps to
facilitate mounting on a wall display.
At the apex of the pommel is a modern
tang button of brass.6 Swords of this general
type seem never to have had any form of
button (see Figs. 13 and 15). However, the
presence of a later button should not be taken
as evidence that the blade cannot be original
to the weapon. The sword has definitely been
disassembled for cleaning at some point,
almost certainly in the 19th century.7 To allow
the sword to be reassembled after cleaning,
the tang appears to have been forged out
to lengthen it slightly, so that it could be
re-peened. This process, to which at least one
other sword in the Wallace Collection has
been subjected,8 would, however, have ruined
the fit of the tang in the tang-hole bored
through the pommel; it would have become
narrower than originally intended and there-
fore too loose in the hole, preventing the end
of the tang being neatly and securely peened.
To solve this problem the modern button,
having a new tang-hole drilled specifically
to match the diameter of the re-forged tang,
was added.
Both the guard and pommel are decorated
with classical ornament in relief. The guard
block is decorated on both sides with a small
profile head, probably derived from Roman
medals carrying such heads, or Renaissance
copies.9 However, it is the figures contained
within the niches of the pommel that immed-
iately draw the eye. On one side (Fig. 2), which
we may for convenience term the ‘front’ (since
the sword’s blade is double-edged and its hilt
symmetrical, it technically does not have a
clear front and rear), a tall male nude is flanked
on the viewer’s left by the smaller figure of a
woman, and on the right by a stooped, presum-
ably elderly man walking with a stick, with a
domed and colonnaded structure in the back-
ground. The pommel’s reverse (Fig. 3) carries
a female figure wearing a Doric chiton (tunic)
with a himation (outer garment) at the waist,
leaning on a spear or bow. She is flanked by
a nude youth in the niche to the left and a
figure bearing a banner in his left hand and
a spherical object (effaced) in his right, with
a long-necked, single-handled jug or bottle
visible on the ground between his feet.
4 6
Although it is not possible at present to
identify the sources for all six of these figures,
certain connections and associations are
apparent. The central male figure on the front
face of the pommel, although it bears a comp-
ositional similarity (the figure gazing to his
left while resting his weight heavily on the
right foot) to the Davids of Donatello and
Michelangelo, is most closely comparable to a
Florentine bronze of Hercules with the golden
apples of the Hesperides (Hercules Pomarius;
the last of the Twelve Labours) dating from
around 1490–1510 and now in the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London (Fig. 4).10 The
representations of the Labours of Hercules
on the colossal sarcophagus in the Palazzo
Torlonia, Rome,11 a popular source of
inspiration for Renaissance artists,12 includes
a depiction of the Twelfth Labour, which, like
that on the bronze in the V&A and the pommel
of the Wallace Collection sword, involves the
5
figure leaning on his right foot and club, with
the apples held in his left hand (now missing
from the bronze). Like the pommel, the sarco-
phagus also locates its Hercules Pomarius
within a narrow arched niche.
The identity of the figures in the niches
on either side of the Hercules is not certain,
although one possibility is that together they
represent the Roman myth of the fountain
of youth, which reappears in medieval liter-
ature.13 In this interpretation the female figure
would represent the nymph Juventas, whose
attribute is a patera or drinking dish,14 with
which she bestows the rejuvenating water of
the fountain. A bowl or deep dish can be seen
resting on the ground next to the female figure
on the pommel. If this identification is correct,
it also explains the subject matter of the niche
opposite, containing the old man. He becomes
a visitor to the fountain, who will cast away
his cane or crutch upon his taking of the waters.
presents slightly different challenges. The
central female figure cannot be positively
identified, although her dress and possession
of what appears to be a weapon both imply
that she is meant to represent either Diana or
an Amazon, perhaps Hippolyta. The pommel
figure resembles both classical and Renaissance
depictions of Diana, the former exemplified
by the Diana of Versailles,15 the latter by
numerous sculptures and drawings.16 Were
the figure to be accepted as Hippolyta, a
relation could then be found between the
central niches on both sides of the pommel;
Hercules killed Hippolyta in the course of
his Ninth Labour, the aim of which was to
appropriate her girdle on the orders of her
father King Eurystheus.
The two figures on either side of the
female definitely relate to each other, as
they are derived from the same source. The
identification of this source is also the key to
understanding the wider art-historical context
of the sword and the pommels of others that
relate to it. Both figures appear to have been
derived from a late 15th- or early 16th-
century bronze plaquette, preserved as the
central portion of a sword pommel now in the
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (Fig.
5).17 The allegorical subject of this plaquette
has not been firmly identified, although it
seems most reasonable to suggest that the
central figure, winged and elevated on a
plinth, is Cupid. He holds a globe in his left
hand and appears to wear a quiver, the base
of which appears at his left hip; both are of
course attributes of the young god of love.
This depiction of Cupid appears to be the
source for the youth located to the left of the
central female on the reverse of the Wallace
Collection sword’s pommel, the wings having
been omitted. The banner-bearer in the niche
on the opposite side has clearly been taken
from the same scene. Here a victorious
warrior carries a trophy of arms over his left
shoulder while the object in the grasp of his
right hand, unidentifiable on the Wallace
Collection sword, is revealed to be the severed
head of an enemy. The same long-necked vessel

34 APOLLO FEBRUARY 2013 FEBRUARY 2013 APOLLO 35

FEATURE
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
is found between his feet. Interestingly, when
this figure was translated for placement in the
pommel niche, the trophy of arms, a muscled
Greco-Roman cuirass carried on a staff,18 was
exchanged for an undulating banner.
Bronze plaquettes bearing classical
figures and scenes were closely associated
with fine civilian clothing in the 15th and
early 16th century. They were commonly
worn as hat badges and set into sword
pommels, at a time when the sword was just
starting to become a standard dress item
among fashionable Renaissance gentlemen.19
For mounting as the pommel of a sword, two
plaquettes (one forming each side) were
usually set into a decorative frame, through
the midst of which passed the tang of the
sword blade. Another ingenious and opportune
use for circular plaques was as facings for the
inner surfaces of the ‘ears’ of ear daggers – the
area of the weapon most likely to be admired
by others as the weapon rested in its scabbard
at the waist of its owner.
Many of the surviving examples of the
work of perhaps the foremost of plaquette
artists, the Master ‘IO.F.F.’, are sword pommels
(Fig. 6), two designs of which even appear
mounted on their original swords in portraits
of Italian gentlemen.20 It is clear that the
Master IO.F.F., and the other artists working
in this medium, had close working relationships
with swordsmiths and supported their work in
a number of ways. As the demand for swords
as companions to fine clothing increased, so
too did the desire to integrate them with this
other, culturally sophisticated aspect of
domestic decorative art.21
The identity of the third figure found on
the pommel-plaquette in Washington is not
entirely clear, although two options immed-
iately present themselves, depending on how
one identifies the whole scene. It may be
intended to represent the Education of Cupid,
in which case the seated figure would be
Vulcan, creator not only of the arms and
armour of triumphant gods and heroes but also
of the wings of Cupid. Another possibility is
that the subject is Love the Conqueror, wherein
Cupid stands victorious over the seated figure,
36 APOLLO FEBRUARY 2013
7–8 Sword pommel (front and 9–10 Sword pommel (front and
reverse), c. 1490–1520 reverse), c. 1490–1520
North Italian North Italian
Gilt bronze or brass Gilt bronze or brass, silver
543cm and blue enamel
Museo Stefano Bardini, 5.843.6cm
Florence Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence
S.S.P.S.A.E e per il Polo
Museale della città di Firenze
– Gabinetto Fotografico
7 8
9 10
who might then be identified as Pan, person- other side. Here the identification with Vulcan
ification of carnal lust, in a metaphor for the would make sense even without Cupid’s
clash between divine and earthly love.22 presence. We must also note that the reverse
The seated figure is worth considering of the Bardini pommel carries the figures of
even though he does not appear on the the woman and the old and/or infirm man
Wallace Collection sword, since he is found on identified above with the myth of the Fountain
another, now dismounted pommel of precisely of Youth. Since a central figure is here absent,
the same style in the Museo Stefano Bardini in and almost certainly was not present when the
Florence (Figs. 7 and 8).23 This piece is almost piece was new and complete, it reinforces the
identical to the Wallace Collection example idea that the side niches were in both cases
except that its ‘ears’ are slightly larger and it intended to work together, independent from
contains reliefs in the side niches only; the the contents of the central niche, whether
central niche on one face is filled with an relief figure or filigree scroll. The figures in
applied band of very fine filigree scrollwork, the side niches, on the reverse of the Wallace
while that on the other side is empty. Presum- sword’s pommel and the ‘front’ of the Bardini
ably it once contained a similar band. The pommel, carry this interpretation even further,
Bardini pommel features the seated figure since they are both selections taken from the
on the right side, facing inward to regard same Cupid allegory.
the triumphant warrior/banner-bearer on the The triumphant warrior is also found in
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
11 The Torment of Marsyas, from a 12 Cinquedea (detail)
cinquedea dating from c. 1500 c. 1480–1500
North Italian North Italian
Museo Civico Medievale, Steel, ivory, bronze, gold,
Bologna copper and copper alloy
Drawing: the author 44.89.5cm
Wallace Collection, London
By kind permission of the
Trustees of the Wallace
Collection, London
the right niches of both faces of a third closely
related pommel in the Museo Nazionale del
Bargello in Florence (Figs. 9 and 10).24 This
one, like the Bardini example, has slightly
larger ‘ears’ and filigree scrolls filling the
centre niches. On one side the warrior is
joined by the ‘Juventas’ figure in the left
niche; in this case then a narrative relation-
ship between the two figures seems to break
down. In the left niche on the reverse, however,
is a figure not present on either the Wallace
Collection sword or the pommel-plaquette in
Washington. It comprises the form of a youth,
shown from the pelvis upwards, naked and
11
bound to a tree-trunk. Although once again
it is difficult to be absolutely certain of the
subject matter, one possible identification is
the Torment of Marsyas. Marsyas, as related
by Ovid,25 boasted that his skills as a musician
were greater than those of Apollo. However
he lost a musical contest with the jealous
god, who had him bound to a tree and
flayed alive.26
The figure of Marsyas introduces another
set of relationships to this group of objects,
with the distinctive long daggers (or short
swords) worn as civilian side-arms in north
Italy during the late 15th century and generally
referred to as cinquedea.27 The image of a
naked youth bound to a tree trunk is found
not only as part of the etched decoration on
the blade of a cinquedea in the collection of
the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna (Fig.
11)28 but also on the gilt bronze pommel-
collar of another one in the Wallace Collection
(Fig. 12).29 The composition of this second
instance is precisely the same as that on
the Bargello sword pommel – facing to the
viewer’s left and shown from the pelvis
upwards. These crucial comparisons allow this
12
treatment of Marsyas to be added to the group
of figures that were used repeatedly in the
decoration of specifically civilian edged
weapons, all of which, perhaps, were extracted
from bronze plaquettes. It has not been
possible at the time of writing to locate the
source for this partial image of Marsyas, but it
is clear that it is closely similar to that found
on the famous Seal of Nero, a carved gem
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank his
colleagues at the Wallace Collection:
Jeremy Warren, Collections and
Academic Director, for his
encouragement and invaluable
assistance; David Edge, Head of
Conservation, for his advice and
tolerance of continual questioning;
Cassandra Parsons, Photographer, for
taking the time to re-photograph a
number of small details; Jürgen
Huber, Senior Conservator, for
conducting the XRF analysis of the
sword; and Suzanne Higgott, Curator
of Earthenware, Limoges Enamels
and Glass, for her suggestions
regarding sources for the inter-
pretation of classical iconography.
1/ Waddesdon Bequest, inv. no.
WB.11. The original silver-gilt guard
was married to a modern silver-niello
grip and 16th- or 17th-century
German military blade, apparently in
the mid 19th century; it carries the
Paris import mark for 1819–38.
2/ Disassociated pommels of this
type, found in collections of flat
reliefs, are sometimes described as
‘sword or dagger caps’ in the bronze
and plaquette literature; see, for
example, Christopher B. Fulton, ‘The
Master IO.F.F. and the Function of
Plaquettes’, in Alison Luchs (ed.),
Studies in the History of Art Volume 22:
Italian Plaquettes, Washington, 1989,
p. 153. Their small size and unusual
form have led others to assume they
are somehow incomplete elements;
see John Pope-Hennessy, Renaissance
Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress
Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes,
Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars,
London, 1965, p. 100, no. 360: ‘Part of
a Sword-Pommel’.
3/ It has been suggested that the
blade is associated, i.e., not original to
the hilt. In 1973, Ortwin Gamber
argued in a personal communication
with A.V.B. Norman that a hilt of this
type should be fitted with a
single-edged blade; Wallace
Collection archive. This suggestion
appears to be based on the fact that
some German and Italian military and
hunting swords of a broadly similar
form have single-edged or only
partially double-edged blades, such
as inv. no. 2097 in the Ducal Palace in
Venice; see Lionello G. Boccia and
Eduardo T. Coelho, Armi Bianche
Italiane, Milan, 1975, nos. 170–72.
Many, however, also have entirely
double-edged blades; see ibid., nos.
173–75, and Arthur Richard Dufty,
European Swords and Daggers in the
Tower of London, London, 1974, pl. 18
(Royal Armouries inv. no. IX.1097).
Gamber also suggested that the grip
was not original because he felt it
ought to have inlaid longitudinal
decorative strips like some of the
German examples. See A.V.B.
Norman, Wallace Collection
Catalogues: European Arms and
Armour Supplement, London, 1986,
p. 120. However, there appears to be
no solid justification for doubting
either the grip or the blade.
4/ Thought previously to be bronze;
Sir James Mann, Wallace Collection
Catalogues: European Arms and
Armour, London, 1962, p. 257.
Recent analysis has shown
the yellow metal of the guard and
FEBRUARY 2013 APOLLO 37
FEATURE
pommel to be composed primarily of
copper, with a significantly smaller
amount of zinc, and no tin (an
essential constituent of bronze)
present. High gold and mercury
readings confirmed that the brass has
been fire-gilded. Analysis through
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) carried
out at the Wallace Collection,
18 December 2012.
5/ The horn of the grip is closely
comparable to that used for the scales
of the grips of several cinquedeas of
the same period, for example Wallace
Collection inv. no. A744. See Mann,
op. cit. in n. 4 above, p. 380, fig. 135,
and Tobias Capwell, The Wallace
Collection Complete Digital Catalogue
of European Arms and Armour,
London, 2012, inv. no. A744.
6/ The XRF analysis (see n. 4 above)
has shown the button to be composed
of different brass than the pommel
and guard, having a noticeable tin
content. Perhaps more importantly,
mercury and gold are entirely absent.
7/ The work must, however, have
been carried out before 1868, when
Antoine Vollon included the sword in
his painting Curiosités (Musée
d’Orsay, Paris, RF117). This exquisite
group study of weapons and armour
then in the collection of
Alfred-Emilien, comte de
Nieuwerkerke (1811–92;
surintendant des beaux-arts under
Emperor Napoleon III) shows it with
the present tang button already in
place. See Rosalind Savill, ‘Vollon’s
“Curiositiés”, the comte de
Nieuwerkerke and the Wallace
Collection’, Burlington Magazine, vol.
CXXII, no. 932 (November 1980),
pp. 767–70.
8/ Wallace Collection inv. no. A466;
the tang of the authentic medieval
blade was lengthened through
forging to allow its marriage to a
composite hilt made up of an original
pommel and a modern grip and
guard. The re-forging was indicated
by X-ray analysis in the 1980s.
Personal communication with David
Edge, Wallace Collection Head of
Conservation, 17 December 2012.
9/ The heads on the guard of Wallace
Collection inv. no. A499 are especially
comparable to medals of the emperors
Augustus and Drusus I; both Italian, c.
1450–1500, Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence, inv. nos. 622 B and
623 B. See Giuseppe Toderi and
Fiorenza Vannel Toderi, Placchette:
secoli XV–XVIII nel Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence, 1996, pp. 24–25,
cat. nos. 18–19.
10/ Salting Bequest, A.76-1910.
11/ Rome, 3rd century AD.
12/ P. P. Bober and R. O. Rubinstein,
Renaissance Artists and Antique
Sculpture: A Handbook of Sources, 2nd
ed., revised, London, 2010, no. 134.
13/ James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects
and Symbols in Art, London, 1974,
revised edition 1979, pp. 194–95.
14/ Juventas is routinely depicted
with her patera on Roman coins, for
example British Museum inv. nos.
R.12432; R.12434; 1867,0101.2079;
1937, 1006.14.
15/ See Francis Haskell and Nicholas
Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure
of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900,
London and New Haven, 1981, cat.
FEATURE
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
once in the collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici
on which a number of Renaissance medals
and plaquettes were based.30 The apparent
relationship between bronze plaquettes,
swords of the group exemplifed by the one
in the Wallace Collection, and cinquedeas is
strengthened by the presence of the banner-
bearer and seated Pan/Vulcan figure on the
pommel-collar of another cinquedea in
Bologna of c. 1500,31 and may be extended
even further by taking account both of the
use of fine filigree decoration (otherwise rare
in the extreme on European edged weapons)
on the Bargello and Bardini pommels and on
cinquedeas more widely,32 and the repeatedly
observed transference of complete scenes in
relief from bronze plaquettes onto the moulded
and tooled leather of cinquedea scabbards.33
The sword in the Wallace Collection
represents a fascinating demonstration of how
source material was adapted and altered to
suit different uses. Plaquettes could and were
used as whole objects in the decoration of
edged weapons, but the possible applications
were somewhat limited. Their potential was
much increased when the individual figures
were lifted out of their disks or cartouches and
altered to suit new settings. The numerous
instances of such appropriations from
plaquettes suggest a series of attempts,
perhaps all executed by a single north Italian
workshop, to integrate the art of the bronze
relief plaquette with that of the sword more
fully. The emerging fashion for richly
decorated dress swords, worn by the affluent,
stimulated the search for richer, more complex
and more evocative forms of decoration –
designed to appeal to those who aspired to be
connoisseurs of art, literature and philosophy
as well as formidable swordsmen.
The role of swords like the Wallace
Collection one, as everyday items for fashion-
able dress and self-defence, is suggested by the
presence of what appears to be a sword of this
style in a portrait of an unidentified gentleman
in civilian dress attributed to Oliverio
Alessandro (fl. 1532–44).34 However, it is
demonstrated much more effectively in an
engraving by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528),
38 APOLLO FEBRUARY 2013
13 Young Couple Threatened by Death
c. 1498
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
Engraving on laid paper
19.912.4cm
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Photo: © NGC
13
usually titled Der Spaziergang (The
Promenade) or Young Couple Threatened by
Death (c. 1498; Fig. 13). Here a sword of
precisely this form is worn by the young
gentleman, whose status as a follower of the
latest fashions is also expressed by his plumed
hat, short cloak and closely fitted doublet and
hose; the flamboyant puffed and slashed
clothing of his female companion makes their
position even clearer.35 The man wears his
sword centrally at the waist, directly over
his groin; it is notable that the blade of the
Wallace Collection sword is exactly the right
length to facilitate placement in this area,
while still offering enough length for effective
use as a cut-and-thrust sword. This method
of wear demonstrates a relationship between
this type of sword, bollock daggers of the 14th
to 17th centuries (Fig. 14), and the class of
edged weapons known as baselards36 (which,
like the cinquedea, could vary in size consid-
erably, so that some might be considered long
daggers and others short swords). Like the
bollock dagger, the form of the grip and
14 Bollock dagger, c. 1540
Flanders or North Germany
Steel, maplewood, silver and copper
alloy, 26.11.9cm
Wallace Collection, London
By kind permission of the Trustees
of the Wallace Collection, London
14
pommel of the Wallace Collection sword,
having a gradual taper down towards the
guard, appears to be intended to suggest an
erect phallus, if perhaps in a slightly less
obvious manner. In this light the themes of
its decoration and that of the related pieces,
preoccupied with the themes of love and
youthful virility,37 start to seem much more
deliberate and appropriate. Its provocative
function is also revealed in other appearances
in art, for example Judith (c. 1520–25; Fig.
15)38 by Vincenzo Catena (c. 1470–1531), in
which Holofernes’ own weapon has been used
to destroy him – in but one visual telling of
a story often interpreted as an expression
of female resistance to masculine dominance,
or of the unmanning or general misfortune
of man at the hands of woman.39
A sword could be symbolically meaningful
in many different ways, but the most ubiquitous
meanings were always those relating to male
power. This could be the spiritual power
bestowed upon the male bearer through the
favour of a male god, Christian or otherwise.
15
Alternatively or additionally it could testify to
an earthy social superiority, for example that
of a king requiring his lords to swear oaths of
fealty to him on his personal sword. Finally it
clearly brought a more literal, physical power
to the warrior who wielded it. It should not be
surprising, therefore, that swords could at
times attract sexual associations.
This unusual sword aligns an anatomically
evocative form, amorous decorative themes,
and a suggestive method of wear in order to
express this one intriguing aspect of a much
more complex nature. More generally,
although it was not unknown before the late
15th century, the idea that the sword could
be highly effective as an expressive art object
was rapidly expanding by the 1490s. In this
way the Wallace Collection sword may be
considered one of the immediate conceptual
forebears of that most iconic of Renaissance
weapons – the rapier. 
Tobias Capwell is Curator of Arms and
Armour at the Wallace Collection, London.
A DRESS SWORD OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
no. 30, pp. 196–98, fig. 102.
16/ Examples include: an Italian
ivory figure of Diana, 16th century,
Victoria and Albert Museum
A.7-1939; a drawing of an Amazon,
probably Antiope or Hippolyta, in the
Florentine Picture-Chronicle, School
of Baccio Baldini, c. 1470–75, British
Museum inv. no. 1889,0527.37; a
sketch of a woman, probably Diana or
an Amazon, by Girolamo da Carpi,
early 16th century, British Museum
inv. no. 1946,0713.309.
17/ North Italian; Samuel H. Kress
Collection, inv. no. 1957.14.454. See
Pope-Hennessy, op. cit. in n. 2 above,
no. 358.
18/ Armour trophies carried in this
way are frequently found in
Renaissance depictions of Roman
triumphs, for example Mantegna’s
Triumph of Caesar, c. 1484–92; Royal
Collection, Hampton Court Palace,
inv. nos. 403958-66.
19/ See Yvonne Hackenbroch,
Enseignes: Renaissance Hat Jewels,
Florence, 1996, pp. 90–185, esp. pls.
120, 132, 167. See also M. Leino,
‘Italian Renaissance Plaquettes in
Context’, Ph.D. thesis, London, 2003;
Georg Habich, ‘Schwertknäufe der
Renaissance’, Der Cicerone, vol. 2,
1910.
20/ See Fulton, op. cit. in n. 2 above,
figs. 9 and 10.
21/ For the uses for plaquettes,
especially as sword pommels, and for
discussion of the Master IO.F.F. and
his oeuvre, see Fulton, op. cit. in n. 2
above; sources for the use of
plaquettes to decorate ear daggers
FEATURE
15 Judith, c. 1520–25
Vincenzo Catena (c. 1470–1531)
Oil on panel, 8265cm
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
may be found in note 57. 33/ Including the scabbard for the
cinquedea of Cesare Borgia cited
22/ Hall, op. cit. in n. 13 above, p. 88.
23/ Inv. no. 649/340.
above; Victoria and Albert Museum,
inv. no. M.101.1869. See Boccia and
24/ Carrand Collection, inv. no. Coelho, op. cit. in n. 3 above, nos.
C1698. See Lionello Giorgio Boccia 219–23. For further discussion of
and Bruno Thomas, Armi storiche del plaquette designs on scabbards, see
Fulton, op. cit. in n. 2 above, pp.
Museo Nazionale di Firenze, Palazzo
del Bargello, restaurate dall’Aiuto 149–51.
Austriaco per Firenze, exh. cat., Forte
di San Giorgio, Florence, 1971, p. 62.
34/ Early 16th century; Galleria degli
Uffizi, Florence, inv. no. P1118 (1890
In this case the reliefs have been made
inv. 1688). The same picture has been
separately as small silver inserts, one
of which is missing from the reverse.
attributed to the ‘Amico Friulano del
Dosso’; see Roberto Longhi, ‘L’Amico
However, since the third remaining
piece contains the ‘Juventas’ figure
Friulano del Dosso’, in Ricerche sulla
pittura veneta, 1946-1969, Florence,
also found on the Wallace Collection
sword, the woman amongst trees with
1978, pp. 163–68, where the author
also cites another portrait, apparently
a patera at her feet, it seems likely that
the missing piece would have carried
by the same artist, which features a
man armed with a sword containing a
the image of the old man making his
medal by the Master IO.F.F. See also
way to the Fountain of Youth.
25/ Metamorphoses, Book VI, lines
Fulton, op. cit. in n. 2 above, fig. 10.
35/ The German rather than Italian
383–400.
origin of this image is not surprising.
26/ Although Marsyas was a satyr, he It is clear that the Italian fashion for
was sometimes represented in art as swords of this form was rapidly taken
human, or almost human. His animal
characteristics, such as pointed ears
up in the southern German lands. Two
swords of the Emperor Maximilian I in
and a short tail, are rendered in a
quite subtle way on the Hanging
this same general style (National
Museum, Copenhagen, inv. no. 4580;
Marsyas (first or second century A.D.) Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, Vienna,
now in the Musée de Louvre, Paris
inv. no. D11), both dated 1496, were
(inv. no. MR 267; see Anne Weis, The
made by the master Hans
Hanging Marsyas and its Copies:
Roman Innovations in a Hellenistic
Sumersperger in Hall-in-Tirol near
Innsbruck, a place where Italian
Sculptural Tradition, Rome, 1992, pp.
185–87, no. 32, figs. 17, 19, 32.),
influence was especially strong and
from which point it was able to spread
while they are non-existent in
Perugino’s Apollo and Marsyas (c.
out into other areas of the German
Empire. A series of hunting knives also
1495; also in the Louvre, inv. no RF
370). Marsyas also appears to be
made by Sumersperger, including
Wallace Collection inv. no. A883, have
entirely human in most small
pommels of a remarkably similar form
Renaissance relief depictions; see n.
30 below. to that of Wallace Collection inv. no.
A499, complete with roped crest-line.
27/ See Tobias Capwell, The Noble
Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing
For the whole Sumersperger group,
see Bruno Thomas, ‘The Hunting
in Renaissance Europe 1520–1630, Knives of Emperor Maximilian I’, in
exh. cat., Wallace Collection, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2012, p. 24, cat. no. 1.08. Bulletin, new series, vol. XIII, no. 6
28/ Inv. no. MC 336; see Boccia and
Coelho, op. cit. in n. 3 above, nos.
(February 1955), pp. 201–08.
36/ See Claude Blair, European and
206–08, p. 351. American Arms c. 1100-1850,
29/ Inv. no. A740. Interestingly the London, 1962, p. 13; Claude Blair,
other side of the collar of this weapon ‘The Word “Baselard”’, Journal of the
carries an image of Cupid, which,
though represented as a child rather
Arms and Armour Society, vol. XI, no. 4
(December 1984), pp. 193–206.
than an older youth, takes precisely
37/ Another pommel of generally
the same stance as the Cupid on the
similar form in the National Gallery of
pommel-plaquette in the Kress
Art in Washington makes its love
Collection discussed above.
30/ See Hadrien Rambach, ‘Apollo
references even more explicit. Like
the others discussed in this article it
and Marsyas on Engraved Gems and
Medals’, Jahrbuch für Numismatik
includes three niches each containing
a character from classical mythology,
und Geldgeschichte, vol. 61 (2011), but here they can be firmly identified
pp. 131–57. Examples of plaquettes as a nude Venus besieged on one side
cased on the Seal of Nero include two by Mars and on the other by Hercules,
in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello,
inv. nos. 500 B; 594 B; 225 B; the last
both also naked. The niches are
surmounted by a pair of charging
portrays Marsyas in a very similar
posture to that found on the Bargello
centaurs.
38/ Querini Stampalia Foundation
pommel and the Wallace Collection
cinquedea, although his (human) Museum, Venice. See Giles
legs are included. See also Toderi and Robertson, Vincenzo Catena,
Edinburgh, 1954, no. 47.
Toderi, op. cit. in n. 9 above, pp.
23–25, cat. nos. 15–17. 39/ Hall, op. cit. in n. 13 above, p.
181; Hall points out that the story of
31/ Museo Civico Medievale inv. no.
335 A. See Boccia and Coelho, op. cit. Judith and Holofernes was sometimes
in n. 3 above, nos. 224–27, pp. juxtaposed in Renaissance art with
those of Samson and Delilah and
351–52, who attribute this piece to a
workshop in Emilia or the Veneto. Aristotle and Campaspe.
32/ For example the long cinquedea
associated with Cesare Borgia in the
Casa Caetani in Rome; see Boccia and
Coelho, op. cit. in n. 3 above, nos.
209–14, p. 351.
FEBRUARY 2013 APOLLO 39