The Observer, March 7, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 20
Arms and Armor make their Cleveland debut
The Cleveland Museum of Art's latest exhibition, Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria, opened last Sunday. Most of the pieces are from the Landeszeughaus in Graz, Austria, Europe's only surviving Renaissance armory. Most extant armor comes from the Renaissance, not the Middle Ages, as one might think. It is a refreshing respite from the last several shows, most of which were modernist in flavor, such as Barcelona, Monet in Normandy, and Modern Masters.
Cleveland boasts a renowned collection of arms and armor – one of the finest in North America – and this show will make an excellent preamble to the much awaited June reopening of the locally famous Armor Court, in addition to other galleries in the 1916 building. Several objects from the CMA collection are present in this exhibit.
Cleveland's armor court was one of the original galleries in this building when the museum opened and has remained a favorite of generations of Clevelanders since; it is therefore fitting that Arms and Armor should be the last major exhibition before the first galleries of the CMA begin to reopen. Of course, the museum will continue to host major exhibitions in the future, just as it had before its closure.
The first room of the show sets up the theme: the Landeszeughaus. The viewer is confronted by a wooden wall with cuirasses and helmets hanging on it, just as they hung in the armory. The succeeding rooms have impressive displays. Throughout the exhibition, there are also many contemporary prints and paintings depicting arms, armor, knights, tournaments, and battles. These images are an extremely important aspect of the exhibit, since they show how arms and armor were portrayed and what role they played in the society that created them.
Highlights of the exhibition include the "Black-and-white Three-quarter Armor for a Nobleman" (c. 1550) executed by Michael Witz the Younger. It is a superb example of the popular black-and-white style, made up of contrasting areas of polished and blackened steel. There is the fantastically pompous painting, "Portrait of Emperor Charles V as Ruler of the World" (1604) by Peter Paul Rubens. In this painting, Charles V is shown in a splendid suit of black armor. Another famous work is Albrecht Dürer's engraving, "Knight, Death, and the Devil" (1513). The engraving depicts the ideal Christian knight on the path of righteousness, while ignoring the Devil.
The only complaint to be found against the exhibition setup is the plan of the final room, which strongly resembles an exhibit in a historical society, not an exhibition of fine art. There are several groups of armor-wearing mannequins in battle formations and an original tent from the Renaissance. While such a room might be useful in showing the viewers another part of the milieu for which the armor was created, it should be somewhere in the middle of the show. It should not be the last thing the viewers see, since it does not leave the lasting impression befitting of the rest of the exhibition.
Nonetheless, this is still an exhibition to see. It is open during regular museum hours and closes June 1, 2008. Visit www.clevelandart.org for more information. Tickets are free for students and museum members.
