Rossstirn

The original owner of this chanfron was Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Palatine-Neuburg and, from 1556, Prince Elector Palatine. In his later years as an elector, Otto Henry promoted the Reformation, modernized Heidelberg University, and laid the foundation for the celebrated Bibliotheca Palatina. He also built the splendid Ottheinrichsbau, the eponymous wing of Heidelberg Castle.

We know that Kolman Helmschmid, an armourer from Augsburg, produced this chanfron in 1523 because the matching saddle (inv. A 239a) is inscribed with the etched date ‘XXIII’ (1523). The small shield on the chanfron does not belong to it but bears Otto Henry’s motto Mit der Zeit (‘In time’). In 1523, Otto Henry and his brother Philip had just ascended the throne of PalatineNeuburg. Between 1519 and 1521, Otto Henry repeatedly attended the imperial court of Charles V, and in 1521 went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

In keeping with contemporary fashion, the chanfron is fluted and elaborately etched. The etched decoration is presumably by Daniel Hopfer, a printmaker and etcher of armour from Augsburg. The handling here and in other etched decoration on armour (see cat. 32) is similar to a number of coeval etchings (prints) by him. In addition, we know that Hopfer worked as an etcher of armour because two signed works by him survive – a tournament shield made for Charles V that is now in Madrid, and a sword in Nuremberg.

The chanfron was first recorded in 1596 in the inventory of the collection assembled by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, at Ambras Castle near Innsbruck. It was listed together with a saddle (inv. A 239a), a mace (inv. 298), and a slightly earlier armour made for Otto Henry (inv. A 239): ‘Otto Henry Count Palatine, Elector; a white fluted armour, decorated all over with etched bands, together with his helmet and an etched mace, jousting saddle and chanfron’ (Ott Hainrich pfalzgrave bei Rein, curfürst: Ain ganz weisz gerüfte rüstung, durchaus mit geeczten raifen und strichen, sambt seinem helmblin auch ainem geeczten fausthamer, thurniersatl und roszstürn).