Reflections 8 - Arms and Armor

Although I'll never count these galleries among my favorites, I can certainly understand their appeal, especially since we have all been raised on legends of knights, and their images are so familiar from  movies and TV. (Am I the only person in the U.S. who has never seen "Game of Thrones"?)  The displays are interesting for what they tell about how the technology of combat has changed over time, about the union of technology with artistry,  about art and decoration as a signifier of social class, and--not least!--about male vanity. (I think of that Etruscan cuirass, which almost undoubtedly gave its wearer a better physique than the one with which nature endowed him!)  They also say something about the propensity to see one's role in combat as divinely sanctioned and to invoke God's protection, whatever the faith of the combatant.

Two things strike me about my own responses. First, I find myself more interested in swords than in guns. Certainly, the former are more remote in time, and for that reason, it's easier to divorce myself from their deadliness. Yet I know that flesh wounds could be as lethal as bullets, given the high rates of infection,  the filth of the medieval world, and the lack of personal hygiene.

Second, I find myself drawn to ceremonial armor and arms more than to weapons that were actually used in combat. Again, this is a way of separating myself from the violence that weapons were meant to inflict. But precisely because they were ceremonial, these objects are also often beautifully - or at least interestingly - decorated, and it is easier to see them as works of art.