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Old 14th February 2017, 03:06 AM   #10
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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Fernando , the item on the Gold Cabasset of Goa was a great discussion we had back in 2011, and was part of one of my forays into art history and Rembrandt's use of exotic arms and armor in his works. I was trying to find out just what kind of helmet was depicted in "Man With the Golden Helmet" which once thought by the master himself but turned out to be by one of his school.
I discovered this was actually a 'pear stalk cabasset', and in your entry you noted the example of the Portuguese viceroy was of the same 'school' of highly decorated helmets of this otherwise ordinary form worn by 16th-17th century infantry and pikemen.

The artist of the "Man with the Golden Helmet" seems to have used some license by adding ear flaps, probably mindful of those seen on contemporary lobster tail helmets.

We can only wonder what the original helmet used for the basis for that worn in the "Man with the Golden Helmet" (c.1650) might have looked like, but perhaps very much like this interesting example shared here by Dana.
These cabassets were of course widely used in Europe and Spain in her colonies and provinces (including Netherlands), and clearly with Portuguese connections in their many colonial holdings.
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