MAC exhibit ‘Iron and Honor: The Art of Knighthood’ celebrates armor, ideals of knights

Last year, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture presented “Samurai, Sunrise, Sunset,” a collection of armor, weaponry and personal items from the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy.

To make a long story short, things clicked for both parties right away, and before the exhibition had even closed, MAC Executive Director Wes Jessup and Riccardo Franci, curator of the armory at the Museo Stibbert, were already talking about their next collaboration.

That collaboration comes with “Iron and Honor: The Art of Knighthood,” which runs through Oct. 11. The exhibition features armor, weaponry and equestrian artifacts, including two chanfrons, meant to protect a horse’s face, that are each affixed with a unicorn-like horn, from the 1400s through the 1600s.

With such a large collection, Franci was truly spoiled for choice when piecing together the artifacts that would make up “Iron and Honor.” Well, to some extent.

When we talk about European knights, he said, we’re talking about a period of about 1,000 years of history. The Stibbert collection primarily features armor from the 15th century and later, however, as prior to that, armor was seen as a tool for war and would be melted down once it was past its prime.

“If you have a broken shovel, you change it, you use the metal to do something else and make a new shovel,” Franci said. “Same happened for arms and armor.”

Things changed in the 15th century as the meaning of armor changed, evolving from something seen on the battlefield to something that marked nobility.

The most important nobles and landlords, Franci said, began having beautifully designed armor made for themselves as a symbol of their status and power. Many chose to have portraits of themselves wearing their armor painted, as shown in the exhibition.

Over the next century, the fashion of armor would expand from Italy to elsewhere in Europe, with suits of armor being richly decorated with just about every kind of craftsmanship available, including gilding, etching, engraving and embossing.

Two of Franci’s favorite displays in the exhibit are a horseman’s suit of armor that is painted all black and a set of armor for a tournament that is made to look like a shirt with buttons that opens down the middle, as if it were being unbuttoned.

The weapons too became more intricately decorated, becoming, primarily in the 17th century, a complement to formal suits noblemen would wear.

“It’s sort of how we use necktie, for example,” Franci said. “The perfect costume of the nobleman had a sword at the side, so the sword start to be very elaborate, very rich with rich material, gold, and so start to be a status symbol.”

That period of armor is featured in “Iron and Honor,” also marking, as it were, the final days of armor as firearms soon became more and more prevalent on the battlefield.

The exhibition picks up in the 19th century, when stories of heroic, courageous knights reignited the public’s interest in knights and their arms and armor. It was at this time that Frederick Stibbert lived and worked to collect old suits of arms as well as those made in the 19th century, as was fashionable at the time.

Those newer suits of armor often had more of a fantastical style to them that wouldn’t be found in the older suits.

Ellen Postlewaite, curator of history at the MAC, points out that the exhibition title “Iron and Honor” speaks to both sides of the exhibition. On one hand, visitors are admiring the craftsmanship behind each piece. As such, Postlewaite and her team thought about how to best present each object not just as a piece of armor but also a piece of art.

On the other, they are admiring the ideals of the men who wore each helmet and suit of armor.

“They were chivalrous and honorable and good was against the bad,” she said. “Who wouldn’t love the idea of a hero? It’s that idea that these were the trappings of someone who, in theory, had dedicated their life to these ideals.”

And it’s not just knights that hold people’s interest, but that period of history as well. Jessup has heard, for example, instruments like the lute and harpsichord included in popular music of the 1960s and ’ 70s.

“This is such a celebrated era that it will probably come and go, but it’ll always come back, because it is an iconic moment,” he said.

During the exhibit’s run, the MAC will host events Jessup hopes will further engage guests in the life and times of the knight, including Medieval Night at the MAC (July 8), an evening of hands-on activities, live demonstrations and medieval-inspired fun, and screenings of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (Aug. 12) and “A Knight’s Tale” (Sept. 5).

He said this is truly a family-friendly exhibit, one that grandparents, parents and children will all enjoy.

After its time at the MAC, the pieces in “Iron and Honor” will return to the Museo Stibbert. It’s a credit to MAC staff and visitors, Jessup said, that the Museo Stibbert crafted this exhibit just for the Inland Northwest.

It also plays well with the MAC’s mission to bring the world to Spokane. Not every visitor to the MAC would be able to travel to the Museo Stibbert, where Franci said the goal is to share different cultures through arms and armor. “Iron and Honor” therefore ensures visitors still get to experience and appreciate the art and design of the armor.

“Our exhibitions have gotten larger, they’re more ambitious, they’re coming from farther afield,” Jessup said. “This is really our way of bringing the world to Spokane, so that our residents and our community can have world-class experiences right here in Spokane.”