Cleveland Museum of Art

Corsèque

Date: c. 1520
Medium: steel; round wood haft; tassel
Culture: Italy, Venice
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 95859

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The corsèque is a pole arm with a symmetrical three-pronged head consisting of a central double-edged blade and two sharp, upturned wings. The side blades served several functions: as guard to protect the soldier's hand when a thrust was delivered with the central blade; as a hook for unseating a mounted opponent; and to trip the opponent's horse. The corsèque was used mostly in Italy and France from the 1400s to the early 1600s. The version here is sometimes called a chauve-souris after the French word for "bat," since the side blades are thought to resemble a bat's wings. The corsèque is said to have originated in Corsica, from where it takes its name.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance
Provenance: Richard Zshille(1847-1903), Leipzig, Germany | ?-1916: Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1951), Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1916-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

European Edged Weapons Collection
These objects are all European swords, daggers, and bladed weapons from the medieval and early modern periods, showcasing the arms and armor traditions across the continent.
336 objects from 4 institutions