Arms & Armor Show Coming to CMA

The Cleveland Museum of Art's "Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria" special exhibition will explore the fascinating history of Renaissance warfare.

The Cleveland Museum of Art will host Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria from February 24 to June 1, 2008. This ticketed special exhibition describes Renaissance warfare, armor and weaponry from the Austrian state of Styria (1500 to 1650 A.D.) when its rural inhabitants repelled the advancing Ottoman Turks.

More than 200 works, many from the collection of the Landeszeughaus or regional armory in Graz, Styria's capital, will illustrate arms and armor both as objets d'art and functional weaponry. Tournaments and armor as fashion are also explored in this presentation. Paintings, sculpture and examples of the decorative arts, some from the CMA, will further situate the works on view within the contexts of both the chivalric and romantic traditions.