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TO DIIEE FOORR RRapiersapiers aass OOrnamentationrnamentation iinn tthehe RRenaissanceenaissance EErara Fashion, art, and the science of self-defense joined forces to usher a brutish society into the modern age. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell RAPIER OF CHRISTIAN II, ELECTOR OF SAXONY, the hilt probably made by Marx Bischhausen of Dresden, the blade Solingen, circa 1605-1607. Provenance Electors of Saxony. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, VI.433. 28 ORNAMENT 36.1.2012 PARADE COSTUME OF CHRISTIAN II, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (1583-1611), the construction and embroidery probably Saxon, Dresden, the fabric possibly Italian, beginning of the seventeenth century, between 1601 and 1609. Signed ‘Biberach’. Provenance Electors of Saxony. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, I.7. Below: TRAICTÉ CONTENANT LES SECRETS DU PREMIER LIVRE SUR L’ESPÉE SEULE, Henri de Sainct-Didier (active second half of the sixteenth century) Paris, 1573. © Wallace Collection, Howard de Walden Library. Background: FIGHT BOOK DETAIL: Ridolfo Capo Ferro, Gran Simulatero dell’arte e dell’uso della scherma, Siena. © the Howard de Walden Library. ou could tell a lot about a Renaissance social superiority at a time when traditional class distinctions man from his rapier, the weapon at (including distinctions in dress) were being eroded. According to a French fencing treatise of 1623, the rapier distinguished the center of the Wallace Collection’s a gentleman “from a financier, merchant or burgess, whom the recentt exhibition “The Noble Art of the Sword: abuse of our times permits to be as well-dressed as he.” As decorative as it was deadly, the rapier was a man of fashion’s Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe” largest piece of jewelry, carefully coordinated with the rest of in London. With its narrow, lightweight blade, his clothing and accessories. the rapier was designed for “This is not just an exhibition about swords,” says Tobias Capwell, Curator civilian conflicts rather than of Arms and Armour at the Wallace military skirmishes. Indeed, Collection, who organized the show. “It’s it was useless on the battlefield, about what people’s lives were like.” Fashion, art, and the science of self-defense too long for close combat and joined forces to usher a brutish society too flimsy to penetrate armor. into the modern age. Until the fifteenth century, swords In a duel of honor, however, were worn only when traveling, hunting, its elegant proportions and or on active military duty. The most exquisite ornamentation belied symbolically important of all weapons, the sword’s cruciform shape signified God- its lethal thrusting power. given physical and social power. Since its The rapier—and dueling itself— earliest bronze incarnations, the sword helped Europe’s nobles assert their has been considered a work of art, or even 29 ORNAMENT 36.1.2012 magic (the secrets of metallurgy being closely guarded by interplay between the medieval knight with the fighting swordsmiths). But it remained a backup weapon, drawn only ability to defend his people honorably, and, at the same time, when arrows and other long-range attacks failed, or used in the cultured gentleman who’s aware of art, literature, music, conjunction with a shield or dagger. And the wearing of swords and the finer things in life. That tension between someone in a civilian context was frowned upon, if not explicitly who is a hardened, powerful warrior and someone who has outlawed. Fencing schools were disbanded, and armed men an artistic and scientific awareness is what being a Renaissance were rightly perceived as troublemakers. man is all about.” By 1520, however, swords were an essential everyday The rapier never entirely lost its air of disreputability, accessory for aristocratic and affluent men. The fashion however; many found it too obviously designed for murder “appeared quite suddenly, and by the second quarter of the rather than self-defense, and its roots in the Italian fencing sixteenth century you had to be wearing a sword at all times,” tradition made it controversial, especially in England. In Romeo Capwell says. “It was as essential as wearing a hat or breeches.” and Juliet, Mercutio dismisses Tybalt as a “fashionmonger” A man’s sword signified not just wealth and status but leisure for adopting the Italian fighting style and weapon of choice, time for daily fencing practice. The sword itself was a valuable before dying on his rapier’s point. possession, but even more valuable was the implied ability to “Just as firearms in civilian life are controversial today, use it, the right to settle personal disputes with a sword being people objected to rapiers on moral and religious grounds,” a long-established privilege of the nobility. Fechtbuchs (fight Capwell says. “We have gun-control issues; they had sword- books) began to include tips on defending one’s honor as well control issues. Thousands of people were killed every year as military techniques. by rapiers.” Rapiers carry romantic connotations today, but their Previously, swords had been relatively plain. But “once origins and history remain widely misunderstood. The term the sword entered the realm of costume and fashion, it became “rapier” probably derives from the Spanish espada ropera, or more elaborately decorated, featuring a wider and more “sword of the robe”—that is, one worn with everyday clothes, complex range of ornamental metalworking techniques than rather than carried into battle. The emergence of the rapier had usually been employed before,” Capwell writes in the in the fifteenth century signaled not just a new style of fighting, handsome exhibition catalogue. Rapiers “had to be integrated but a new definition of masculinity. “For the noble and seamlessly into the whole clothing system, decorated in rich, upwardly mobile middle-class gentleman, there was a duality ostentatious ways that not only matched the other metalwork to the concept of the ideal man,” Capwell observes. “It’s this worn on the person (for example such things as rings, SAXON RAPIER, Dresden, the blade Solingen, circa 1608. Provenance Electors of Saxony. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, VI.370 and XI.4. Background: CAMILLO AGRIPPA, Del Trattato di Scientia d’arme, Venice. © the Howard de Walden Library. 30 ORNAMENT 36.1.2012 ENGLISH RAPIER-HILT, blade German, circa 1605-15. © by kind permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collection. As a result, it is easy to overlook the ubiquitous rapier in portraits of the period; often, just the hilt is visible, and it is only one of many eye-catching elements in a man’s attire. But the pendants,pendants, ear-rings,ear-rings, buttons,buttons, andand buckles),buuccklles), but also exhibition repeatedly drew our attention to the symbiotic complemented and augmented the clothing itself,” being relationship between fashion and fencing; the pommel of carefully coordinated with the splendid silks and velvets one mid-sixteenth century rapier even mimicked the puffed and worn by the affluent. slashed clothing fashionable at the time. In the catalogue, well- As proof of this, the exhibition presented the luminous chosen portraits are blown up to show the sculptural rapier silver-embroidered blue velvet parade costume of Christian II, hilts, daggers, scabbards, purses, and sword belts without Elector of Saxony, and a matching rapier, its solid Saxon which a gentleman could not be considered well-dressed, or silver hilt fully enameled in brilliant ultramarine blue, with a even fully dressed. quatrefoil pommel echoing the embroidery motif on the There is a rich visual record of Renaissance swordsmanship, doublet and breeches. While the ensemble—on loan from the probably because so many important artists were fencers and Dresden Armory—was the only complete outfit on display, duelists themselves. Holbein designed weapons; Dürer produced it was a showstopper, the perfect marriage of suit and sword. a Fechtbuch; Caravaggio killed at least one man in a rapier Dressed to kill, indeed. duel. Rapiers in the exhibition displayed all the hallmarks of Many more surviving garments are pictured in the contemporary artistic styles like Mannerism and Orientalism. catalogue, particularly in Jutta Charlotte von Bloh’s essay, one The theme is developed in Sydney Anglo’s catalogue essay, of seven focused scholarly essays supplementing Capwell’s “Sword and Pen: Fencing Masters and Artists.” thoughtful thematic introductions and entries, on the well- As small shields (called bucklers, as in “swashbuckler”) preserved armory of the Prince Electors of Saxony. Others fell out of use, the rapier’s distinctive “swept” hilt emerged, can be seen in paintings included in the exhibition, like the forming a protective cage around the sword hand, formerly Wallace Collection’s circa 1560-65 portrait of Robert Dudley, defended by the buckler. Flamboyant but functional, the swept Earl of Leicester, resplendent in a feathered cap and a pearl- hilt made an aesthetic statement even when it was not encrusted doublet of rich silk with scallopedpg edges. At embellished with expensive materials or decorative his wawaist,ist, hhisis IItalian-madetaalian-made giggiltltt rrapierapa ier and matching techniques. Chains were a popular motif for rapier hilts dagger,er, ththeireir poppommelsmmmels emembellishedbellisi hed with spreading in the second half of the sixteenth century. “The conceit, acanthusthus lleaves,eaaves, aarerer aalmostlmmoso t ovoverwhelmedverwhw elmed by the that an inherently flexible construct could be opulenceence ooff