Dr Tobias Capwell
May 19, 2027 @ 10.30am
Armour was both equipment for fighting and expressive art and by the sixteenth century, the art of the armourer in southern Germany had attained unrivalled technical sophistication, artistic conception, and decorative richness.
The centre of the German Renaissance armour world was Augsburg, led by the Helmschmid family. Lorenz Helmschmid and his son Kolman served as court armourers to the German Emperor Maximilian I, with Kolman succeeding as master after his father’s death and going on, with his son Desiderius, to create armour masterpieces for the Emperor Charles V and Prince Philip of Spain. In this talk we encounter the outstanding creations of these extraordinary sculptors in metal and consider their significance to the wider artistic culture of their time, and beyond.
Dr Toby Capwell
Toby Capwell is an independent scholar and leading authority on medieval and Renaissance arms and armour who, over the last thirty years, has worked with many of the world’s great collections, including the Imperial Armoury in Vienna, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Livrustkammaren in Stockholm and the Royal Armouries in Leeds. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Armourers in London, he is the author of many books on armour, weapons and tournaments, has curated numerous exhibitions, and frequently appears in film, television and online media.