This path was created by Zachary Barney.
Composite Stechzeug (Armor for German Joust) 2014.1164
A set of Stechzeug was built to protect its wearer from the sharp point and shattering impact of an opponent's lance. The suit weighed 88 pounds and was a quarter inch thick in the chest and neck. Suits of armor like this one were made in Nuremberg during the 15th century to prevent injuries and deaths from the joust, one of medieval Europe’s favorite pastimes. Not just a military or chivalric exercise, jousting was a cultural and social activity, too: jousters would hope to win the favor of noble women in the stands, or might devote themselves to nearby sculpted figures of the Virtues, hoping for good luck . Once a knight reached the jousting field, squire would adjust the helmet via a mechanism on the backplate to make sure that the knight could see out of the narrow eye slit in his helmet. Then the squire would hand the armored knight his 11 foot long lance and shield. The jousting knight’s aim was to knock his opponent off of his horse through a strike to his shield. While the danger was real, and men lost their eyesight, limbs, and sometimes their lives during the joust, many craftspeople across Europe worked to develop new materials, forms, and technology (like the mechanism on the back of this suit) in an attempt to keep its heroes safe.
