Mars and the Muses: The Renaissance Art of Armour Armour was a fundamental Renaissance art-form. By the sixteenth century, most of the richest noblemen in Europe were dedicated patrons of the armourer’s art. Armour represented a complex visual language, developed to project aristocratic identity, prestige and power. The armour-making process demanded both fantastic skill in the sculpting of iron and steel, and mastery of decorative techniques such as acid-etching and mercury-gilding. This talk provides an introduction to the concept of armour as art, exploring how protective equipment for fighting became an expressive art-form. Here the achievements of virtuoso armourer-artists embodied magnificence, radiating detailed and subtle messages about status, affinity, social order and divine power.