Elaborate Italian Renaissance armour to be sold at Apollo Art Auctions
30 September 2024 The armour is part of Apollo Auction’s Fine Ancient Art & Antiquities sale and carries an estimate of £600,000-£1.2m.
Italian Renaissance armour by Pompeo Della Cesa, £600,000-£1.2m at Apollo Art Auctions.
One of the best-preserved Italian Renaissance armours in private hands comes for sale at Apollo Art Auctions in London on October 13-14 with an estimate of £600,000-£1.2m.
The meticulously etched and gilded infantry parade armour is signed for a famed Milanese workshop of the time, Pompeo Della Cesa.
The auction house says: "The breast and back plate includes mythological creatures, musical instruments, war trophies, arabesques, and human figures. The helmet, gorget, pauldrons, rerebraces, counters, vambraces, and tassets have also been etched and gilt. They are decorated with various motifs, including human figures, animals, plants, and religious imagery. To etch and gilt an armour to this magnitude would have been a vastly expensive undertaking, meaning that whoever commissioned this armour must have been a high-ranking member of the social elite."
Renaissance infantry armour by Pompeo Della Cesa of Milian, guide £600,000-£1.2m. The engraved vignette of the Virgin and Child to the breastplate is signed Pomp.
It was last sold at Gallerie Fischer (Lucerne, Switzerland) in September 2009 when, guided at SFr250,000-350,000, it took a premium-inclusive SFr798,000 (around £700,000).
