Parade Spear
c. 1570–1600
- Medium
- steel, etched; brass lugs; hexagonal wood haft with leather straps; woolen tassel
- Classification
- Arms and Armor
- Dimensions
- Overall: 208.2 cm (81 15/16 in.); Blade: 29.5 cm (11 5/8 in.)
- Culture
- Germany, possibly Augsburg
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance
- 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 Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This weapon is etched with the imperial Habsburg arms on one face and the Burgundian stave cross of St. Andrew on the other. In the 1500s, parade spears of this type became part of the insignia of infantry and light cavalry officers in the imperial army. In 1548 Titian painted an equestrian portrait of Emperor Charles V holding such a spear. At his abdication in 1556, Charles split the Habsburg inheritance between his son, Philip II of Spain, who was awarded control of Burgundy, and his brother, Frederick, who received the imperial title and the family's central European lands. This spear probably belongs to this later period and its purpose was likely ceremonial.
