This exhibition is the Museum’s first to look at a slice of history in Europe at the height of the Renaissance through the subject of arms and armor and its role in a rural society on the border of the Ottoman Empire.

Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria, curated by CMA’s curator of medieval art, Stephen N. Fliegel, focuses upon the history of the Austrian state of Styria between 1500 and 1650 when it was under threat from the advancing Ottoman Turks. At the heart of the story is a broad selection of loans from the collection of the Landeszeughaus (regional armory) in Graz, the capital of Styria. This armory, still intact, was one of a series of armories established by the early Habsburg Family in the 16th century throughout Central Europe for defensive purposes against the Turkish expansion.

At its height, the armory housed 180,000 pieces; today it contains 30,000 pieces including some of the finest surviving examples of arms and armor in Europe. The exhibition, presenting more than 200 works, will additionally examine the role of arms and armor in a historical context, both as highly-decorated art objects, and as functional weaponry or protection for its wearer. Other aspects of the history of the period explored are warfare, tournaments, and armor as fashion. -- www.clevelandart.org