This impressive set of medieval 15th-century armor was largely pieced together from the remnants of unconnected items of Italian equipment discovered at a Venetian fortress at Chalcis, Greece, on the island of Euboea. You may be wondering, what were armed Venetians doing at that time in Greece and what caused the armor to be left behind in the ruins of the fortress? It is a long story, stretching back centuries into the past, involving war, trade, and the crusades.
Venice had been given widespread access to ports in the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Alexios Komnenos of Constantinople (r. 1081-1118), who allied with the Venetians against Norman expansion in Italy and Greece during the time of Robert Guiscard (c. 1015-1085) and his son, Bohemond (d. 1109). Subsequently, as a result of the Fourth Crusade (c. 1201-1204)—when Crusaders attacked Constantinople—Venice seized land on Euboea, Crete, and the Aegean islands. A complicated peace and partnership between Venice and the Byzantine Empire resumed as pressure from the Ottoman Empire increased in Greece. Later, Venetian (as well as Genoese) forces were present among the defenders at the famous fall of Constantinople in 1453. Turkish forces subsequently captured the Euboean region (and the Venetian fortress at Chalcis) around 1470, and it is from that conflict that the remnants of the armor originate.
Components from the cuisse, greaves, and visor are genuine and original, but extensive restoration work had to be done on the rest of the set, and several of the remaining pieces of the display were gathered from related sets of armor from later time periods. The bright red velvet covering is known to date to the early 20th century, around the same time when the restoration and assembly of this set of armor was completed in the 1920s. Currently, the armor is held and displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The music playing softly in the background is Six Four by Trout Recording.
The photographs used in this video are Open Access/Public Domain, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Sources:
- The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, translated by E. R. A. Sewter. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Venice/Zenith-of-power
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23205
Photographs of the Armor (via the MET):
