Plate 2. Page of designs for emboaded saddle plates, stirrups and bit-bosses. 43138 Reprinted from the American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 43:38-48 Additional articles available at http://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/resources/articles/ Filippo Orso, Designer, and Caremolo Modrone, Armourer ,. of Mantua By John Hayward Filippo Orso has left no trace of his life and work in the chronicles of his times; his name is known to us only because he signed the title-page of three slightly variant books of drawings of pageant costume, armour, sword hilts and horse bits. Even the precise form of his name is uncertain, as the title pages are written in Latin and opinions have differed as to the Italian equivalent by which he would have been known to his contem- 1 poraries. The text reads 'Liber Philippi Ursonis Manu, Pictoris Mantuani'. From this can be deduced that he worked as a painter in Mantua and that his Christian name was Filippo, whereas his surname has been read as Orso (Hayward), Ursoni (Mann)', or Orsoni (Boccia)P. As his device, which appears on the title page of his books, was a bear, 1 prefer to call him Orso, which is the Italian for a bear. Of the three versions of his book which are known to exist, one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (refined to below as the London Codex), the second is for the various parts of amour. They also make suggestions in the library of the former Dukes of Braunschweig- concerning the most suitable materials to be used in the con- Wolfenbuttel, while the present location of the third, which struction of pageant armour. was seen in the London art market some twenty years ago, is It is doubtful whether Orso produced these designs at one unknown. It is also incomplete, since it now consists mainly of time. Assuming that he followed what was later the practice, he drawings of horse bits. One of the pages of the London Codex would have produced designs for armourers as and when he bears the date 1554; the Wolfenbuttel version is dated 1558 was commissioned to do so, and only later, when he had ac- and 1559 on two of its pages, but both contain approximately cumulated a large enough number to make up a book, would the same material and represent the fashions of the mid-16th he have collected and copied them, or had them copied by a century. I have been able to collage the contents of the first two member of his workshop. In later centuries it was usual for the codices, but not, of course, the third; they correspond very artist to have his collection of designs engraved and published closely. The London Codex has in all three hundred and four as a pattern book. Why then did Orso undertake the extremely drawings: five pages of horse bards, five of saddle steels and tedious task of making three versions of his designs? The answer stirrups, five equestrian pageant costumes, one equestrian ar- must be that the demand for books of armour fashions was too mour, four of close helmets and parts of amour, sixteen of cas- small to justify the expense of publishing a printed book. The ques, thirty-nine of sword hilts, the remainder showing horses wages of apprentices were on the other hand very low and copy- and horse-bits. The Wolfenbuttel Codex has nine pages of ing was a regular part of their training. Another example of horse bards, six of saddle steels and stirrups, ten of equestrian such drawings being reproduced in several versions for sale is masque costumes, one equestrian amour with bard, six of discussed in relation to another designer of sword hilts, close helmets and armours, eighteen of casques, forty three of Erasmus Hornick, in my book Virtuoso Goldsmiths. sword hilts, the remainder showing horses and horse bits. The The purpose of these books of drawings was presumably to il- Wolfenbuttel version is, therefore, the more complete. There is lustrate the fashion in amour, pageant costume and sword hilt also in the Victoria and Albert Museum a single sheet showing construction set by a leading Italian court, that of the Gonzaga a sword hilt which reproduces with minor variations one of the Dukes of Mantua. The two versions of the codex, the drawings present in the other two Codices. This presumably whereabouts of which are known, both went north of the Alps; comes from the third Codex, unless, of course, Orso produced that now in the Victoria and Albert Museum belonged to Mar- some preliminary sketches for his drawings. cus Sitticus, Count of Hohenembs and Archibishop of Salzburg The drawings are not of great artistic merit; the best are the (1574-1619), the other to one of the Dukes of Braunschweig- title page and the following sheet, which shows a view of the Wolfenbuttel. Mantua was at this time the place of work not city as it appeared in the mid-16th century. Below each draw- only of major artists, such as Giulio Romano, Benvenuto ing or page of drawings is a caption stating what is represented Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Jacopo da Strada, but also and recommending the merits of the designs in a prolix, naive of one of the leading armourers of northern Italy, Caremolo and often repetitive manner. In the Wolfenbuttel codex, Modrone, court armourer to Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Man- however, the captions to the swords are omitted. Many of the tua (c. 1500-1540). captions, particularly those describing the armour, are of con- Though no documentary evidence has come to light which siderable interest as they give the contemporary terminology would connect Filippo Orso with Caremolo Modrone, it does not require too great a stretch of the imagination to accept that 1527 Modrone was granted citizenship of Mantua and in the there is likely to have been some relationship between the Man- following year he received permission to construct a forge for tuan designer of costumes and amour and the Mantuan court armours near the river in Mantua. In the same year there is a armourer. While there is no trace of Orso in the Mantuan reference to an amour which was lying finished in Brescia. In records, much more is known about Modrone. A native of 1534 and again in 1536 he journeyed to Spain to hand over the Milan, he lived from 1489 to 1545 and some forty references to amours he had constructed for Charles V. There are also him and his work have been found in the Mantua archive.# references to swords and daggers supplied by him; in 1537, he Most refer to armour and weapons supplied to the Gonzaga was in contact with the Brescian bladesmith, Antonio Serafino, court, but his clients included prominent figures of the time, concerning commissions he had received for swords which were including Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto, and the Holy to be sent to Mariotto Martinengo, a member of the well- Roman Emperor himself. In view of the relationship, which I known Brescian family, and to Anne de Montmorency, Grand seek to show betwen Orso and Modrone, some account of Connetable ,de France. In 1539 and in 1540 he was engaged on Modrone's career is called for. The first mention dates from amours for the son of Don Garcia de Toledo, Viceroy of 1521 when he was working in association with the armourer, Naples, and for the French knight, Boissy dlAbbeville. He died Jacopo da Brescia. When the latter was in trouble with Duke in 1548 at the age of fifty-four and was succeeded as master of Federigo because he had failed to deliver a sallet on time, he the Ducal Armoury by a Maestro Marco Antonio. excused himself on the grounds that Modrone had induced his It follows from the above account that a designer working in workmen to leave him and thus delayed completion of the association with Modrone would have reason to expect orders helmet. In 1524 Duke Federigo wrote that he had commission- from the most august sources. Many of the Orso drawings do, ed Modrone to make armours for him and also for some of his in fact, include in their decoration the devices of the Holy mounted and foot soldiers. In the following year he wrote that Roman Emperor or of the King or the Dauphin of France, he was accustomed to order armour from Modrone three or though as far as one knows none was ever executed. Mann has four times a year according to current fashion or to designs that suggested that the designs may have been prepared in 1551 pleased him. Some amours were retained for his own use, when a truce was declared between Charles V and Henri I1 of while he gave others to friends or gentlemen of his court. In France, who were than at war concerning the succession to the duchy of Pama and Piacenza. Even if Orso's designs were never executed, he had an obvious motive for including them in his pattern books, giving the impression that he had enjoyed the patronage of these princes. Two drawings of the Wolfen- butte1 Codex show two horse bards for the Emperor and the King of France respectively. The former shows the columns of Hercules and the orb surmounted by a single crowned eagle, while the double eagle of the Empire is on the front and over the rump of the horse (pl. 1). Orso describes the bard as intend- ed for the joust and suggests that the textile covering should be of crimson velvet or of silk with the devices embroidered in gold and silver.