Cuirass from an Armor of Tsar Dmitry I

1605/06

Italian; Milan

The Moscow coat of arms with an imperial double-headed eagle identifies the owner of this breastplate as Dmitry I, the ill-fated tsar of Russia who falsely claimed to be Ivan the Terrible’s lost youngest son. After only 11 months of rule, members of the Russian nobility (boyars) assassinated him and shot the ashes of his body out of a cannon.

Dmitry rose to power with Polish support and was heavily influenced by Western taste and politics. This Italian-made armor (with matching helmet , also in the Art Institute’s collection) represents the height of Western fashion at the time and might have been a diplomatic gift. Only traces remain of the original gilding that once highlighted the bands of etched decoration.

Status: On View, Gallery 239
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Title: Cuirass from an Armor of Tsar Dmitry I
Place: Milan (Object made for)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1605–1606
Medium: Steel
Dimensions: H.: 41.3 cm (16 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: George F. Harding Collection
Reference Number: 1982.2430a-b
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/116344/manifest.json

Leonid Tarassuk, Italian Armor for Princely Courts. Renaissance Armor from the Trupin Family Trust and G.F. Harding Collection, the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 1986.
Walter Karchieski, “Arms and Armor in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/Little, Brown, and Company, 1995), p. 55 (ill.)
Yulia Igina, ‘False Dmitry’s armour and political aspects of its iconography’, in Armi Antiche, Turin: Accademia di San Marciano (2013).

“Italian Armor for Princely Courts: Renaissance Armor from the Trupin Family Trust and the George F. Harding Collection”/ AIC, 1986.

Probably commissioned in Milan for or by Tsar Dimitry I (died 1606), Moscow, c. 1605–06 [according to imperial double-headed eagle and coat-of-arms on the breastplate]. Probably Chlodwig Carl Viktor, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (died 1901), Ausbach, Germany, by 1901 [Stephen Grancsay, catalogue manuscript, Aug. 1967; copy in curatorial object file]. George F. Harding, Jr. (died 1939), Chicago; bequeathed to the George F. Harding Museum, Chicago; transferred to the Art Institute, 1982.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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