Overview: This fall, after a three-year absence, highlights of the Art Institute’s ever-popular collection of arms and armor will be put on special display. This installation of nearly 50 items, which will be on view for several years, includes full suits, half suits, pole arms, cannons, a shield with two swords, and, for the first time at the Art Institute, a knight on a horse—something previously impossible due to the low ceilings in Gunsaulus Hall.

Half Armor for Foot Tourney at the Barriers, 1575/80. Northern Italian, Milan. George F. Harding Collection.

Reflecting current scholarship in the field, the installation explores the close relationship between arms and armor and contemporaneous art and fashion, illustrating the ways these objects emphasized the owner’s social status. The high ceilings in the new installation space also allow
for the inclusion of grand Renaissance and Baroque tapestries, along with several paintings and a piece of sculpture, objects that suggest the variety of settings—military combat, tournaments, jousts, and parades—in which arms and armor were originally viewed.

The Art Institute owes its extensive holdings of arms and armor to the passion of George F. Harding Jr., a colorful figure in Chicago business and politics in the early 20th century who assembled an enviable collection at a time when others, including William Randolph Hearst and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, provided stiff competition. In 1927, Harding added a two-story Gothic Revival stone turret to his home on the city’s South Side to showcase his ever-expanding collection. This assemblage was transferred to the Art Institute in 1982, fulfilling Harding’s initial intention to share his enthusiasm with the people of Chicago.

Plans are underway for a larger permanent installation of this vast collection that will allow for the inclusion of many more objects like those now on display, as well as firearms and edged weapons not currently on view. These future galleries will be part of a suite of rooms featuring the museum’s significant holdings of medieval and Renaissance art, including ceramics, illuminated manuscripts,
jewelry, metalwork, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, and textiles.

Sponsor: Generous support for Arms and Armor is provided by the Edwardson Family Foundation.