I thought I would try to find something in the Easter theme today…don’t know why, I just thought I would. Of course, I was going to look for something to shoot that was more of a landscape format, I’ve been shooting too many portrait layouts with a vertical theme, and then I noticed this armor. Actually, what I noticed was the etching on this piece of armor. Now I am not saying that metal armor has anything to do with Easter, but it does have the image of Jesus on the cross…

This is an Austrian, Viennese suit from c. 1530 made from steel. During this period of armor making, it became quite popular in the German speaking counties to etch into the steal images of the cross with the knight kneeling in front of him. Decorative etchings, often combined with bluing and gilding, were at their height during this period, especially in Italy. They also did some embossing as decoration but this tended to weaken the metal rending the armor useless for war or tournaments. These wonderful pieces were created at the height of armor production and engineering as by the end of the 16th Century the need for suits such as these was in decline due to advance weapons such as the early guns.