Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria

1571

Hans Paumgartner
Austrian, Graz, active 1556-1582

This rifle, a masterpiece of stock inlay, may have been given as a wedding present to Archduke Charles of Styria (eastern Austria), the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand I. The engraving on the butt end of the stock combines Charles’s Habsburg coat of arms with that of his wife, the Duchess Maria of Bavaria; the couple was married in 1571, the year the gun was made.

Curiously the lock is mounted on the left side, a rare feature suggesting that Charles was left-eye dominant, or that he aimed with his left eye.

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

Artist: Hans Paumgartner
Title: Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria
Place: Graz (Artist's nationality:)
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.: 1571
Medium: Steel, fruitwood, and staghorn
Inscriptions: Marked by stock maker Hans Paumgartner
Dimensions: L. 112 cm (44 1/8 in.) Barrel L. 86 cm (33 7/8 in.) Wt. 8 lb. 6 oz. Caliber .55
Credit Line: George F. Harding Collection
Reference Number: 1982.2266
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/106404/manifest.json

Walter Karchieski, “Arms and Armor in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/Little, Brown, and Company, 1995), p. 75 (ill.)

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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.

Learn more.