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Crossbow (arbalète) (Top)

Crossbow (arbalète) (Top)
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Bottom

Side

Side

Subject
Secular. Hunting scene. Courtly love. Religious. Saints.

Repository Institution
www.wallacecollection.org

To purchase an image
www.wallacecollection.org


London, Wallace Collection

A1032

Steel;horn;wood;gold;iron;parchment;cord;leather.

Height: 720mm (length)
Width: 596mm (span of bow)
Weight: 4.4kg

Side
Hunting scene; dogs pursuing a stag. Saint George and the dragon. Naked couple. Couple dancing. Couple embracing (meeting of lovers). Martyrdom of saint Catherine of Alexandria; saint Catherine of Alexandria is beheaded; broken wheel (?). Dragon.
Side
Original Sin; Adam and Eve; tree. Martyrdom of saint Sebastian; archers with bows, crossbows and arrows. Soldiers in armour. Men fighting with swords. Monster (hybrid creature).
Top
Dragons with intertwined heads. Interlaced snakes. Musician jester playing the bagpipes. Saint George and the dragon. Tracery.
Bottom
Painted coat of arms.
Band of carved coats of arms.

Museum's opinion 2009: German (Bavarian), c. 1450-1470.


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: red, black (coats of arms).

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Provenance
Colonna von Fels collection, South Tyrol. Collection of Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (b. 1783, d. 1848), Goodrich Court, Herefordshire; Frédéric Spitzer collection, Paris; bought by Sir Richard Wallace in 1871.


Image

© Wallace Collection, London.

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