Art Institute of Chicago

Cuirass (Breastplate and Backplate) in the Late Gothic Style

South German or Austrian

Date

c. 1480

Medium

Steel, brass, and leather

Culture

Germany

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Sculpted with sleek rippled surfaces and decorative cut edges, this cuirass typifies late gothic German armor. A rare survival, it is fabled to have come out of a church in the Austrian Tyrol at the turn of the 20th century. It may have adorned a shrine figure of Saint George or hung over a noble’s tomb. The heavily pitted exterior attests to centuries of neglect, and a redblistered area of the interior is evidence it was in a fire. The right side of the breastplate below the waist was carefully restored in London around 1917.

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