Photos: The Noble Art of the Sword at the Wallace Collection
Jun 22, 2012 6:13:20 GMT
Post by Lunaman on Jun 22, 2012 6:13:20 GMT
I mentioned in my hiatus thread that I took another brief trip to the UK and now have some updated pictures to share of sword stuff there. Here's the first of them.
One of my favorite spots in London is the Wallace Collection. It's fantastic. When I visited it again this year I brought along my camera to maybe take a couple extra shots of swords I'd missed before, but I was mostly prepared to wander around all the cool stuff without thinking much about picture taking.
I was more than a little surprised to stumble on an entire special exhibition dedicated to Renaissance Swords!
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The Wallace is hosting a special exhibition this summer called "The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe" from now until mid-september.
In their words:
Needless to say, I took a bunch of photos and here they are!
One of my favorite spots in London is the Wallace Collection. It's fantastic. When I visited it again this year I brought along my camera to maybe take a couple extra shots of swords I'd missed before, but I was mostly prepared to wander around all the cool stuff without thinking much about picture taking.
I was more than a little surprised to stumble on an entire special exhibition dedicated to Renaissance Swords!
***********************************************************************************
The Wallace is hosting a special exhibition this summer called "The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe" from now until mid-september.
In their words:
Witness the cutting edge of fashion as you’ve never seen it before! This exhibition tells the untold story of this fascinating and little known area of Renaissance art: revealing the fantastically skilled artistry behind the rapier; at once a weapon, fashion item, and rich jewellery object; representing the rise of a new and upwardly mobile middle class, sixteenth-century concepts of masculinity and the emergence of the duel of honour.
Summer 2012 represents the perfect opportunity to investigate the historical and social development of the ancient art of sword-fighting. The modern sport of fencing is one of the nine original Olympic sports but is also a piece of a much older story which began with the Renaissance fashion for carrying and fighting with swords in everyday life.
The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe comprises exquisite and deadly weapons and other works of art from the Wallace Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Armouries, and British private collections, brought together with stunning princely weapons and costume from some of the greatest continental collections, exhibited in Britain for the first time. The very best sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century swords will be seen alongside beautifully illustrated fencing manuals from the Howard de Walden Library, on long-term loan to the Wallace Collection, while portraits, design books and documents will help place the Renaissance rapier in its social and artistic context to tell us more about the men who owned and used it.
Summer 2012 represents the perfect opportunity to investigate the historical and social development of the ancient art of sword-fighting. The modern sport of fencing is one of the nine original Olympic sports but is also a piece of a much older story which began with the Renaissance fashion for carrying and fighting with swords in everyday life.
The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe comprises exquisite and deadly weapons and other works of art from the Wallace Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Armouries, and British private collections, brought together with stunning princely weapons and costume from some of the greatest continental collections, exhibited in Britain for the first time. The very best sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century swords will be seen alongside beautifully illustrated fencing manuals from the Howard de Walden Library, on long-term loan to the Wallace Collection, while portraits, design books and documents will help place the Renaissance rapier in its social and artistic context to tell us more about the men who owned and used it.
Needless to say, I took a bunch of photos and here they are!