TheGhisi Shield is a piece ofRenaissanceparade armour made by the Italian goldsmith and engraverGiorgio Ghisi, signed and dated 1554. It is part of theWaddesdon Bequest, held by theBritish Museum in London since 1898.
The shield is made from a single plate of hammered steel, with its rim turned over a wire. The decoration on the outer face isdamascened in gold and partially plated with silver. It is 55.8 centimetres (22.0 in) in diameter, 7 centimetres (2.8 in) deep, and weighs 3.8 kilograms (8.4 lb). An inscription on the front of the shield reads, "GEORGIVS DE GHISYS MNTVANZ FA M.D.LIIII".
Ghisi was an artist, mainly aprintmaker, fromMantua, but he was in the Netherlands from about 1550 to about 1555, and the shield was probably made inAntwerp, then under the rule of theHabsburgs. It is one of only two surviving pieces of damascened metalwork known to have been made by Ghisi. (The other item is a damaged sword hilt, dated 1570, and now in theHungarian National Museum in Budapest.)
The intricately decorated shield, damascened with gold and silver, was intended for display, not for use in battle. It isembossed withrepoussé andchased work inhigh relief, with a framed central circular scene of battling horseman, surrounded by fourstrapwork cartouches containingallegorical female figures (Victory, Fame,Fortitude,Prudence). The frames around the five main scenes themselves incorporate detailed images on a much smaller scale, taken from theIliad and ancient mythology, inlaid in gold. Further imagery of birds, foliage,putti,satyrs and other figures, fills the field between the frames.
The shield may have been designed by a Netherlandish artist, not Ghisi himself: other shields made in the Netherlands in the late 16th century have survived with similar decoration, but none of them demonstrate the accomplished decorative skills of Ghisi. For example, an iron shield held by theKunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has similar strapwork and embossed imagery with scenes ofJason and the Golden Fleece; and a similar gilded shield orrondache at theHermitage in St Petersburg has four allegorical figures (Prudence, Fortitude, Fame,Envy) arranged in circular cartouches around a circular image ofMars.
The Ghisi Shield was sold for £1,000 at the Allègre sale in Paris in 1863, and then sold in the sale of theDemidov Collection in Paris in 1870, shortly before the death ofAnatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato, for 1,600,000 francs (about £6,400). It was bought at the Demidov sale by BaronAnselm von Rothschild, and later inherited by his son BaronFerdinand de Rothschild, who left it to theBritish Museum after his death in 1898 as part of the Waddesdon Bequest.
