Corazza Greca, Elmo, Scudo e Spada Dacia | Greek armour, Dacian helmet, shield and sword

A reproduction engraving by Lorenzo Roccheggiani depicts relief-decorated monuments of the ancient art of armour production. Pictured on the right side of the card is Greek armour, also known as Pyrrhic armour after the Epirus king of the Aeacid dynasty Pyrrhus, illustrated based on an object from the collection of the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Its cuirass is decorated with the head of Gorgona and a pair of crossed horns of plenty and two griffins holding a flaming torch, while at the bottom, the lambrequin shows rows of masks, lilies, alternating pairs of elephant and ram heads, and bells. On the left side of the card, the artist has documented the design of the Dacian soldier's armament reproduced from Trajan's Column. It features a helmet topped with a mace- and shield-equipped Triton and a laurel wreath, an oval shield with c-motifs, stars and moons on obelisks, and a sword suspended on a pendent in a scabbard decorated with stylised geometric and floral motifs in a candelabra arrangement. The board in question, No. 3, comes from the album Raccolta di 100 tavole reppresentanti i costumi religiosi, civili a militari degli antichi..., published in Rome in 1804, containing one hundred boards depicting religious, secular and military costumes and equipment of antiquity from the area of Egypt, Etruria, Greece and Rome. The illustrator of the album, Lorenzo Roccheggiani, worked as an engraver and illustrator between 1804 and 1817. He was the author of several series of engravings published in Rome and Milan, dedicated to ancient monuments, costumes, furniture and ornamental motifs. Ewa Gwiazdowska