This is a cool figure and the inspriation for it is from a 13thc. relief carving from the tomb of Gugliemo Beradi (c. 1289) in the church of Santa Annunziata, Florence. The unique thing about this figure is that he is wearing, in addition to his mail chauses and hauberk, what has been described by period references as leather armor. It is cuir boulli (hardened boiled leather, that once treated this way became very rigid yet light and added another level of defense in addition to the mecula or mail and padded gambeson, the padded shirt or jacket under the mail) and has some very elaborate tooling and embossing work on it. The Spaulders (the shoulder plates) the cuisses (the upper thighs) the poulaines (the knees) and the grieves (the shins) are all this leather armor and possibly the vine work that is embossed has been gilded. Although no one is for certain on this. The original carving can be seen in Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight by David Edge & John Paddock. And I think that Osprey's "Medieval Italian Armies" also may have some nice contemporary illustrations of this figure.
13thc. heraldry, even for the Florentines, was relaitively simple and had not gotten quite as elaborate as you see in the later 14th and 15thc which was when medieval herladry became an art form. So simple schemes and or charges on the shields would be quite appropriate.
Really you can paint him up as you see fit as Florence was a large export area and Florentine as well al as milanese armor was showing up everywhere in europe, second only to the german armories. And more importantly, because its your figure.....
![Wink [;)]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_wink.gif)
Mike
"Imagination is the dye that colors our lives"
Marcus Aurellius
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
