Muscle cuirass
In
In
Use
The cuirasses were cast in two pieces, the front and the back, then hammered. They were a development from the early Archaic bell-shaped cuirass, weighing about 25 pounds.
From around 475 to 450 BC, the muscle cuirass was shorter, covering less of the abdomen, and more nipped at the waist than in later examples. It was worn over a
The Italian muscle cuirass lacked the shoulder-guards found on Greek examples.
Polybius omits the muscle cuirass in his description of the types of armor worn by the Roman army, but archaeological finds and artistic depictions suggest that it was worn in combat. The monument of Aemilius Paulus at Delphi shows two Roman infantrymen wearing mail shirts alongside three who wear muscle cuirasses.[6] They were worn mostly by officers, and may have been molded leather as well as metal, with fringed leather (pteruges) at the armholes and lower edge.[8] The muscle cuirass is one of the elements that distinguished a senior officer's "uniform".[9]
Artistic qualities
Cuirasse esthétique
The sculptural replicating of the human body in the muscle cuirass may be inspired by the concept of heroic nudity, and the development of the muscle cuirass has been linked to the idealized portraiture of the male body in Greek art.[10] Kenneth Clark attributes the development of an idealized standard musculature, varied from the facts of nature, to Polykleitos:
Polykleitos set himself to perfect the internal structure of the torso. He recognized that it allowed for the creation of a sculptural unit in which the position of humps and hollows evokes some memory and yet can be made harmonious by variation and emphasis. There is the beginning of such a system in the torso from Miletos and that of the Kritios youth; but Polykleitos' control of muscle architecture was evidently far more rigorous, and from him derives that standard schematization of the torso known in French as the cuirasse esthétique, a disposition of muscles so formalized that it was in fact used in the design of armor and became for the heroic body like the masks of the antique stage. The cuirasse esthétique, which so greatly delighted the artists of the Renaissance, is one of the features of antique art that have done most to alienate modern taste.... But... we can see from certain replicas that this was originally a construction of great power. Such is the copy of the Doryphoros in the Uffizi.[11]
Decoration
Another conventional decoration is the
Roman emperors
Among freestanding sculptures portraying
The cuirass on the famous Augustus of Prima Porta is particularly ornate. In the center, a Roman officer is about to receive a Roman military standard (aquila) from a bearded "barbarian" who appears to be a Parthian. The Roman, who has a hound at his side, is most often identified as a young Tiberius, and the scene is usually read as the return in 20 BC of the standards lost at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The anatomically realistic navel (Greek omphalos, Latin umbilicus) is placed between the two central figures, slightly below ground level in relation to the feet and centered above the personification of Earth, positioned over the abdomen.[14] Her reclining position, cornucopia, and the presence of suckling babies is common to other goddesses in Augustan art who represent peace and prosperity. Other figures include a lyre-playing Apollo riding a griffin, Diana on the back of a hind, and the quadriga of the Sun at the top.[15]
Gallery
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Early Greek cuirass in bronze, 620–580 BC
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Greek bronze muscle cuirass, 370–340 BC
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From a statue of Hadrian, Ancient Agora of Athens
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Marswearing muscle cuirass, 1st century AD
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From a statue of Trajan, 2nd century AD
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Indian steel cuirass, 17th to 18th century.
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Two Samnite muscle cuirasses (left and right only), 4th century BC
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Japanese muscle cuirass.
Notes
- early Christianera.
References
- ^ M. Treister, "The Theme of Amazonomachy in Late Classical Toreutics: On the Phalerae from Bolshaya Bliznitsa," in Pontus and the Outside World: Studies in Black Sea History, Historiography, and Archaeology (Brill, 2004), p. 205; Charlotte R. Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome (Brill, 1987), p. 184.
- ^ a b Treister, "The Theme of Amazonomachy," p. 205.
- ^ Mikhail Y. Treister, Hammering Techniques in Greek and Roman Jewellery and Toreutics (Brill, 2001), pp. 115–118; Richard A. Gabriel and Karen S. Metz, From Sumer to Rome: The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies (Greenwood, 1991), p. 52.
- ^ Treister, Hammering Techniques, p. 115.
- ^ a b Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 184.
- ^ ISBN 1-85532-598-5.
- ^ Nic Fields, Roman Battle Tactics 390–110 BC (Osprey Publishing, 2010), p. 7 with images.
- ^ Pat Southern, The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 157.
- ^ Hugh Elton, "Military Forces," in The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 62.
- ^ Jason König, Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 103, providing further references in note 27.
- ^ Kenneth Clark, The Nude, Ch. 2, "Apollo."
- ^ Elfriede R. Knauer, "Knemides in the East? Some Observations on the Impact of Greek Body Armor on 'Barbarian' Tribes," in Nomodeiktes: Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald (University of Michigan Press, 1993), pp. 238–239.
- ^ Knauer in Nomodeiktes p. 239.
- ^ Lawrence Keppie, The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire (University of Oklahoma Press, 1984), p. 230.
- ^ Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (University of Michigan Press, 1988, 1990), pp. 175, 189–190.
External links
- Media related to Muscle cuirass at Wikimedia Commons