Detail View: The AMICA Library: Shield

This piece is from a distinctive group of Renaissance pageant shields painted on both sides with scenes from Roman history and classical mythology in grisaille (tones of gray) on a ground of gold leaf. Many of the details are rendered in sgraffito (the technique of scratching through a surface to reveal a different color underneath-in this case, gold). The exposed gold is impressed with comma-shaped marks to heighten its light-reflecting quality. Girolamo da Treviso was one of the few sixteenth-century artists to employ the demanding sgraffito technique, which had gone out of fashion by the late fifteenth century.

The battle scenes on the inside of the shield, perhaps illustrating episodes from the life of the Roman general Scipio, show a keen observation of classical costume and armor, which were both known from antique sculpture and coins. The style of painting, the physical types, and the energetic poses are strongly indebted to Giulio Romano (ca. 1499-1546), who was Raphael's assistant and, later, court painter to the dukes of Mantua. Girolamo da Treviso worked with Giulio in Mantua in 1527.