The Beast Within, the Beast Without

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_15215
dc.title	The Beast Within, the Beast Without. Zoomorphic Armour Ornament and the Human-Animal Divide in the Material Culture of Renaissance War
dc.contributor.author	Borgo Francesca
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	EN
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/venezia-arti/2023/1/the-beast-within-the-beast-without/
dc.description.abstract	Drawing on and accentuating classical motifs, the surfaces of Renaissance armour are inhabited by an impressive variety of animal exuviae: leonine protomes and paws, ram’s horns, shells, tails, beaks, and wings. This essay examines the role of zoomorphic armour around the period of the Italian wars (1494-1559) and brings into focus early modern ideas about the behavioural and morphological proximity of living beings, illustrating the period’s fluid perception of the human-animal divide. It argues for the centrality of ornament in military material culture and concludes by establishing armour as the period’s main figurative stage for experimenting with the permeability of bodily boundaries, and the mixing of human and animal forms.
dc.relation.ispartof	Venezia Arti
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 32 \| December 2023
dc.issued	2023-12-20
dc.dateAccepted	2023-10-24
dc.dateSubmitted	2023-08-31
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-2720
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2023/01/003
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Animality
dc.subject	Armour
dc.subject	Grotesque
dc.subject	Monster
dc.subject	Ornament
dc.subject	War
dc.subject	Zoomorphism

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Zoomorphic Armour Ornament and the Human-Animal Divide in the Material Culture of Renaissance War

Francesca Borgo Bibliotheca Hertziana, Italy; University of St Andrews, UK

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abstract

Drawing on and accentuating classical motifs, the surfaces of Renaissance armour are inhabited by an impressive variety of animal exuviae: leonine protomes and paws, ram’s horns, shells, tails, beaks, and wings. This essay examines the role of zoomorphic armour around the period of the Italian wars (1494-1559) and brings into focus early modern ideas about the behavioural and morphological proximity of living beings, illustrating the period’s fluid perception of the human-animal divide. It argues for the centrality of ornament in military material culture and concludes by establishing armour as the period’s main figurative stage for experimenting with the permeability of bodily boundaries, and the mixing of human and animal forms.

Published

Dec. 20, 2023

Accepted

Oct. 24, 2023

Submitted

Aug. 31, 2023

Language

Keywords: Armour • Monster • War • Zoomorphism • Grotesque • Animality • Ornament

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2023/01/003

Copyright: © 2023 Francesca Borgo. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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