Gauntlet for the Left Hand

1575/90

Lucio Piccinino (Italian, active 1575-1595)
Milan

Intended purely for spectacle, parade armor represented the pinnacle of the armorer’s art. This fragmentary gauntlet for the right hand was part of such a harness. The workshop of Lucio Piccinino produced several similar commissions for various dukes and princes of the Habsburg court. The work of several craftsmen, this gauntlet merges the arts of armoring and goldsmithing. Here the technique of gold-and-silver overlay is combined with embossing—pushing the thin steel from both inside and out. With its riot of classical ornament, including grotesque figures, fruit garlands, and trophies of arms, the decoration reflects the prevailing artistic taste, known as Mannerism, at the end of the 16th century.

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

Artist: Lucio Piccinino
Title: Gauntlet for the Left Hand
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 1565–1600
Medium: Steel, gold, silver, and brass
Dimensions: 16.5 × 14.6 × 19.7 cm (6 1/2 × 5 3/4 × 7 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: George F. Harding Collection
Reference Number: 1982.2648
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/116446/manifest.json

Walter Karchieski, “Arms and Armor in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/Little, Brown, and Company, 1995), p. 68 (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.

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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.