Krause, Stefan Mode in Stahl. Der Kostümharnisch des Wilhelm von Rogendorf

Renaissance armour was once used for more than just protection in battle and tournaments. It was the noblest garment for men and was worn for triumphal processions and festive occasions. For this reason, it was also subject to the tastes of the time and a constant evolution in fashion. Armour is a garment made of steel but conceived in textile - fashion in steel. In no other work is this better expressed than in the costume armour of Wilhelm von Rogendorf from 1523. This extraordinary masterpiece of German Renaissance art is now on display again in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna after a long period of restoration - and it is the focus of this book. Stefan Krause's book poses the question of why this armour looks the way it does. Why are its steel sleeves folded into heavy, puffy pleats? Why does it imitate soft fabric in hard steel? These questions take us back five centuries, including to Spain to the court of Emperor Charles V and to Augsburg to the workshop of the ingenious plater Kolman Helmschmid. But it also takes us to the battlefields of the Renaissance - to the Landsknechts, a militarily revolutionary and fashionably extravagant southern German mercenary troop, and to Wilhelm von Rogendorf, a colourful mercenary leader of the emperor.

No other work expresses this better than the costume armour of Wilhelm von Rogendorf from 1523. This extraordinary masterpiece of German Renaissance art is now on display again in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna after a long period of restoration - and it is the focus of this book. Stefan Krause's book poses the question of why this armour looks the way it does. Why are its steel sleeves folded into heavy, puffy pleats? Why does it imitate soft fabric in hard steel? These questions take us back five centuries, including to Spain to the court of Emperor Charles V and to Augsburg to the workshop of the ingenious plater Kolman Helmschmid. But it also takes us to the battlefields of the Renaissance - to the Landsknechts, a militarily revolutionary and fashionably extravagant southern German mercenary troop, and to Wilhelm von Rogendorf, a dazzling mercenary leader of the emperor.