What Shields and Panel Paintings Have in Common
This talk was first given for Summer School on 28 July 2022. If you didn’t mean to come here, you can go ←back to talks
Shields from the Desert

For more images of the shield with Trojan War paintings from Dura Europos on the Euphrates see https://www.getty.edu/publications/mummyportraits/part-two/16/#deepzoom-1603899484248950424
The Pitsa Panels, ca. 540-530 BCE

If you want to learn about the technical details of these paintings, a great free article is https://www.academia.edu/42817853/Colour_and_Painting_Technique_on_the_Archaic_Panels_from_Pitsa_Corinthia
Cowhide Shields from Egypt

Middle Plank of a ‘Celtic’ Shield from La Tène

Viking Shield from the Isle of Man (10th century CE?)

A Central European Shield ca. 1450 CE

There are many more European painted shields in the Metropolitan Museum of Art such as https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23333
A Shield by Khooshal Dhunjee and Sons ca. 1875 CE

Desaturated Battles on Screen




It seems like this trope really became popular around the year 2000, because Hollywood fantasy films from the 1990s like Braveheart and DragonHeart do not use it. Can my readers think of any exceptions?
Bibliography
Peter Beatson, “The ‘Viking Shield’ from Archaeology.” Christobel & Peter’s Homepage (2010) http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html
Benton, Janetta Rebold (2009) Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art. ABC-Clio: Santa Barbara, CA – Denver, CO – Oxford. {legi April 2022}
Hariclia Brecoulaki / Giorgios Kavvadias / Vasiliki Kantarelou / J. Stephens / A. Stephens, “Colour and Painting Technique on the Archaic Panels from Pitsa, Corinthia,” in S.T.A.M. Mols and E.M. Moormann (eds.), Context and Meaning (Peeters): Leuven, Paris, and Bristol CT, 2017 pp. 15-23
Faltermeier, Christel, and Rudolf Meyer (1995) “Appendix: Notes on the Restoration of the Behaim Shields,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 30 (1995) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/
Anne Gunnison, Irma Passeri, Erin Mysak, and Lisa Brody (2020) “16. Painted Roman Wood Shields from Dura-Europos.” In Marie Svoboda and Caroline R. Cartwright (eds.), Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt: Emerging Research from the APPEAR Project https://www.getty.edu/publications/mummyportraits/part-two/16/
Kimmig, Wolfgang 1940. “Ein Keltenschild aus Ägypten.” Germania Bd. 24 Nr. 2, pp. 106-111 http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-ger-413717
Nickel, Helmut (1995) “The Seven Shields of Behaim: New Evidence,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 30 (1995) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/
theophilius-de-diversis-artibus
Paul Vouga, La Tène, Monographie de la station publiée au nom de la commission des fouilles de La Tène (Karl W. Hiersemann: Leipzig, 1923)