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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1220: Arms, Armour, and the Arts of Combat, I: The Functions and Symbolism of Armour

Wednesday 7 July 2021, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Jacob H. Deacon, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair:Jacob H. Deacon, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 1220-aArt and Technology, Flesh and Steel, Artifact and Symbol: Armours as Boundary Objects
(Language: English)
Chassica Kirchhoff, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Index terms: Art History - General, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Mentalities, Military History
Paper 1220-bVictory!: Arms and Armour as Symbols of Triumph
(Language: English)
Karen Watts, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds / Musée du Louvre, Paris
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - Decorative Arts, Military History
Paper 1220-c'A weapon most dangerous': The Use and Construction of a Rotella from Arundel Castle
(Language: English)
Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Jay Maxwell, Independent Scholar, Reading
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - General, Military History, Technology
Abstract

This session addresses the myriad ways in which late medieval armours can be read for symbolic meaning and associated with various martial contexts. Chassica Kirchoff will address the layered significance of specific armours for late medieval viewers and wearers. Karen Watts will consider how personal arms embodied and exemplified a humiliated or a triumphant commander, and explore the personification of victory as an iconographic symbol. Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis and Jay Maxwell will discuss the rare extant structural elements of a rotella from Arundel Castle, analysing the complex functions of the defensive armament in its various martial contexts.