Cleveland Museum of Art

Gothic Backplate

Date

c. 1475–1500

Medium

steel, modern leather straps

Culture

Germany, late 15th Century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Over time the increasing effectiveness of the crossbow and longbow made steel plates necessary for protection. Around 1400 a knight was protected almost entirely by plate armor. The elements shown here (backplate and fan-shaped pauldrons), with their sculptural line, illustrate the beauty of plate armor from the Gothic age. This armor would have been polished mirror bright and been a spectacular sight in the sunlight.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.