Knight or soldier in armour

ca. 1450 - ca. 1470 · Sculpture · 113 × 26 cm

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Victoria and Albert Museum

London, Vereinigtes Königreich

SaalMedieval & Renaissance, Room 10a, The Françoise and Georges Selz Gallery

Öffentlich ausgestellt.

Geprüft: vor 13 Tagen
Unverändert seit: 25. Sept. 2026
Quelle: Das Museum

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Über die Skulptur

This unique oak figure represents a knight, one of three ranks of the retinue of a noble family. With two companion sculptures representing a squire and a man-at-arms, this figure would have been placed high on a screen in a great hall, still an important focus of noble living in this period. Linked to Kirkoswald Castle and Naworth Castle in Cumbria, they may once have held flags displaying heraldic devices of the Dacre family who owned both residences.

In medieval English figurative sculpture arms and armour denoted chivalrous rank and at least esquire status: the bulk of English knights were drawn from the squirearchy, families influential and important in their own county or shire, but not necessarily of enormous consequence at a national level. Entitlement to knighthood was by wealth; in the 15th century an income of £40 enetitled a man to become a knight. Arms and armour were very expensive, and came to imply by their presence in art noble status.

Victoria and Albert Museum