A bronze front plate from a cuirass, naturalistically modelled with anatomical details of the torso; repoussé lines defining pectoral and abdominal muscles, nipples applied separately, navel chased to the stomach; arched collar to the top with escutcheon plates to the side with rings for attaching leather straps; two further rings to side of abdomen for leather straps; mounted on a museum quality display stand.

PROVENANCE:
The property of a North West London collector; formerly in a Rhineland-Palatinate collection formed in the 1960s-1980s.

LITERATURE:
See Everson, T. Warfare in Ancient Greece, Stroud, 2004, for discussion.

FOOTNOTES:
In classical antiquity, the muscle cuirass was a type of body armor made from hammered bronze plate to fit the wearer's torso and designed to mimic an idealised human physique. It first appears in late Archaic Greece and became widespread throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC. It is commonly depicted in Greek and Roman art, where it is worn by generals, emperors and deities.

The cuirasses were cast in two pieces, the front and the back, then hammered. They were a development from the early Archaic bell-shaped cuirass, weighing about twenty five pounds. Examples from the fifth century BC have been found in the tombs of Thracians, whose cavalrymen wore them. The earliest surviving depiction in Greek sculpture seems to be an example on a sculptural warrior's torso found on the acropolis of Athens and dating around 470 to 460 BC. The muscle cuirass is also depicted on Attic red-figure pottery, which dates from around sixth to late third century BC.

From around the middle of the fifth century BC, the muscle cuirass is shorter, covering less of the abdomen, and more nipped at the waist than in later examples. It was worn over a chitoniskos, a garment of a single rectangle of woolen or linen fabric. Tomb II at Vergina, belonging to Phillip II, father of Alexander the Great, contained an iron muscle cuirass that was decorated with embossed gold.

The sculptural replicating of the human body in the muscle cuirass may be inspired by the concept of heroic nudity, and the development of the muscle cuirass has been linked to the idealised portraiture of the male body in Greek art. There was an increasing naturalistic rendering of the human body in Classical Greek sculpture, most notably created by Polykleitos, whose statue of the Doryphoros portrays the ideals of Greek male beauty. Statues of naked idealised males were dedicated at a number of Greek shrines and would have acted as visual references for males visiting the sacred complexes. Cuirasses were also dedicated at temples as votive offerings, and were hung off the interior walls of temples along with shields and other weapons; these were either the armour of vanquished enemies, the armour of a victorious general, or king who dedicated his armour as a thank offering to the gods. Alexander the Great is recorded as leaving his armour at the temple of Athena in Troy as a votive offering.