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| Partial Armour, Italian, C.1570-90. ©Permission |
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LONDON.- Witness the cutting edge of fashion as
you’ve never seen it before! This exhibition tells the untold story of
this fascinating and little known area of Renais- sance art: revealing
the fantastically skilled artistry behind the rapier; at once a weapon,
fashion item, and rich jewellery object; representing the rise of a new
and upwardly mobile
middle class,
sixteenth-century con- cepts of masculinity and the emergence of the
duel of honour. Summer 2012 represents the perfect opportunity to
investigate the historical and social development of the ancient art of
sword-fighting.
The modern sport of fencing is one of the nine original Olympic sports
but is also a piece of a much older story which began with the Renais-
sance fashion for carrying and fighting with swords in
everyday life. A man of means in the sixteenth century went nowhere without his sword, and was always prepared to use it. – -
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