Muscle cuirass

from Apulia (c. 325 BC) 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 25 pounds. Examples from the 5th 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 470–460 BC. The muscle cuirass is also depicted on Attic red-figure pottery, which dates from around 530 BC and into the late 3rd century BC. From around 475 to 450 BC, the muscle cuirass was shorter, covering less of the abdomen, and more nipped at the waist than in later examples. It was worn over a chitoniskos. In Neo-Attic art, the muscle cuirass was worn over a longer chiton. The Italian muscle cuirass lacked the shoulder-guards found on Greek examples. Examples among the Samnites and Oscans sketch a blockier torso more roughly than the anatomically realistic Greek pieces. Many examples come from graves in Campania, The muscle cuirass is one of the elements that distinguished a senior officer's "uniform". == Artistic qualities ==

'' of Polykleitos Cuirasse esthétique 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 idealized portraiture of the male body in Greek art. Kenneth Clark attributes the development of an idealized standard musculature, varied from the facts of nature, to Polykleitos: Decoration Hellenistic rulers added divine emblems, such as thunderbolts, to the pteruges. Another conventional decoration is the gorgoneion, or Medusa's head, on the upper chest, and often vegetative motifs on the pectorals. One of the elements of iconography that identify the Greek Athena and the Roman Minerva, goddesses who embodied the strategic side of warfare, was a breastplate bearing a gorgoneion (see Aegis). Other deities, particularly the war gods Ares and Mars, could be portrayed with muscle cuirasses. The cuirass on the famous Augustus of Prima Porta is particularly ornate. In the center, a Roman officer is about to receive a Roman military standard (aquila) from a bearded "barbarian" who appears to be a Parthian. The Roman, who has a hound at his side, is most often identified as a young Tiberius, and the scene is usually read as the return in 20 BC of the standards lost at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The anatomically realistic navel (Greek omphalos, Latin umbilicus) is placed between the two central figures, slightly below ground level in relation to the feet and centered above the personification of Earth, positioned over the abdomen. Her reclining position, cornucopia, and the presence of suckling babies is common to other goddesses in Augustan art who represent peace and prosperity. Other figures include a lyre-playing Apollo riding a griffin, Diana on the back of a hind, and the quadriga of the Sun at the top. Renaissance Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor had a parade armour in Roman Style with a muscle cuirass made by Bartolomeo Campi in 1546 . == Gallery ==

File:Antigua coraza griega de Grecia continental - M.A.N.jpg|Early Greek cuirass in bronze, 620–580 BC File:Museo archeologico regionale paolo orsi, corazza in bronzo, da tomba 5 necropoli della fossa, 370-340 ac. 01.JPG|Greek bronze muscle cuirass, 370–340 BC File:Estàtua de l'emperador Adrià a l'àgora d'Atenes.JPG|From a statue of Hadrian, Ancient Agora of Athens File:Stele warrior BM GR1905.10-23.1.jpg|Neo-Attic Roman stele from Rhodes, 1st century BC File:Terracotta Odysseus Akhilleus arms Staatliche Antikensammlungen.jpg|Odysseus and the arms of Achilles (oil lamp fragment, 1st century AD) File:Mars Pyrrhus cropped.jpg|Mars wearing muscle cuirass, 1st century AD File:Perge Theater - Trajan Brustpanzer.jpg|From a statue of Trajan, 2nd century AD File:Indian steel cuirass 17th to 18th century.JPG|Indian steel cuirass, 17th to 18th century. File:Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola 4th century BCE.jpg|Two Samnite muscle cuirasses (left and right only), 4th century BC File:Flesh-colored nio cuirass, 18th century.JPG|Japanese muscle cuirass. ==Notes==