Pavise with the Arms of Winterthur and Saint George
c. 1440—c.1460
- Medium
- Wood, leather, pigskin, iron, gesso, and pigment
- Classification
- Armor
- Dimensions
- 114.3 × 44.5 × 13.4 cm (45 × 17 1/2 × 5 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Winterthur
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts of Europe
- Credit line
- George F. Harding Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Units of crossbowmen used shields or pavises like this example to form a wall of protection while loading and aiming their crossbows. This pavise is part of a group that survived in the arsenal of the Swiss city of Winterthur.
Pavises were the product of specialized shield makers who made the wooden forms and covered them in layers of animal-skin glue, canvas, and leather. Painters then added the colorful front-facing layer with the coat-of-arms of the city of Winterthur (on the left) and Saint George (on the right).
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
