The Cleveland Museum of Art Special Exhibitions Arms and Armor From Imperial Austria

Arms and Armor Vancouver, Canada: June - September 2007. Nashville, Tennessee: February - June 2008. Forth Worth, Texas: June - October 5, 2008. ...and more great venues to be announced...

Armor for the Tilt (Plankengestech),

Image of <b><i>Armor for the Tilt </i></b><b>(Plankengestech),<i> </i></b><br />157080
<br />Steel and leather
<br />South Germany, Augsburg
<br />Lent by the Styrian Museum Joanneum, Landeszeughaus, Graz, Inv. 1903
Armor for the Tilt (Plankengestech),
1570-80
Steel and leather
South Germany, Augsburg
Lent by the Styrian Museum Joanneum, Landeszeughaus, Graz, Inv. 1903
 

This armor was developed for a specific form of the joust: a sporting combat of arms between two mounted contestants. The participants rode along a wall-like barrier known as a tilt (or plankengestech in German) with their left sides facing each other. In the tilt course, the combatants could only make an oblique blow to their opponent's left side. Consequently, a jousting armor on that side was thicker and more strongly reinforced. This example clearly shows the asymmetry of jousting armor. It was built for the Italian style of joust, having a formfitting grandguard protecting the left shoulder and chest, and a gardebras screwed on to protect the left arm. Armors for the German style of joust had a shield affixed to the arm instead of a gardebras.