Fußkampfharnisch/Kempfküriss der sog. Rosenblatt-Garnitur

This armour belongs to the so-called Rose Leaves Garniture, named after the main motif of its elaborate etched decoration: rose garlands, buds, and leaves. It may be the garniture for which Maximilian II authorized payment in January 1572 of the enormous sum of 2550 guilders to Franz Großschedel, an armourer from Landshut in Bavaria. The order may have been connected to the nuptials celebrated in 1571 of Archduke Charles II, Emperor Maximilian’s younger brother, and Maria Anna of Bavaria. This marriage was of great importance for the imperial court because it sealed an alliance between the two great Catholic powers in southern Germany – Austria and Bavaria – against the Protestant princes in central and northern Germany. The imperial court spared no expense for the wedding festivities held in Vienna and Graz (see inv. A 886).

The Rose Leaves Garniture differs from the Eagle Garniture produced in 1547 (see inv. A 638) in that the Eagle Garniture comprises pieces of exchange so the armour can be reconfigured for different types of jousting, whereas the Rose Leaves Garniture consists of a series of complete armours. The Rose Leaves Garniture comprises a bard, a field cuirass for fighting on foot and another for fighting on horseback, armours for, respectively, the joust of peace with and without the tilt, and armour for combat on foot. The latter includes a wide steel skirt (tonlet) that protected the wearer’s otherwise exposed waist and hips (see inv. A 638, B 33). Most pieces of this garniture are in Vienna, but a few were removed during the Napoleonic era and are now exhibited at, for instance, the Musée de l’Armée in Paris.

There is also an extant second version of the armour for the joust of peace with the tilt that is etched black (rather than gilt) and that does not have an etched collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece; it does, however, include two vamplates without a crest, a burgonet, and a pair of gauntlets. Perhaps these are all that remain of a second garniture featuring identical but less costly ornamentation.