The Nesvizh Armoury
The power and the standing of the Radziwiłł family was apparent not only due to the extent of its estates, but also due to the materiel stored in their castles.
Nesvizh was a place where new cannons were cast, and a factory repairing and making blades and firearms.
The Radziwiłł armoury was distinguished by the multitude of various sets of armour, which represented the best the armourers had to offer. The most valuable and decorative armour was made for Mikołaj Radziwiłł, known as the Black, by the eminent Nuremberg armourer Kunz Lochner in 1555. At the same time, Lochner made a similar armour for King Sigismund Augustus (which can be seein in the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm), but it was an inferior variant, with fewer interchangeable elements.
In 1580, Mikołaj Radziwiłł’s son, Mikołaj Krzysztof, also known as the Orphan, sent several beautiful artefacts from the Nesvizh armoury to the collection of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. The gifts included two sets of armours, one belonging to the Orphan himself, and the other belonging to his father. The collector responsible for the armoury brought sets of armour and weapons of European rulers, princes and illustrious generals to the castle. Other than the gifts of the Nesvizh prince, the Ambras Castle in Innsbruck saw armours of King Stefan Batory, Jan Zamoyski and the Orphan's uncle, Mikołaj Radziwiłł, known as the Red.
The tourney armour of Radziwiłł the Black was second to none in terms of workmanship, as its entire surface was covered with rich enamel ornamentation. Interestingly, in the Ambras collection, the father's armour is misrepresented as that belonging to the son.
In 1601, a catalogue of the collection - Armamentarium Heroicum - was printed in Innsbruck. The extensive catalogue had 125 engravings of European rulers wearing armour. The images were framed with decorative architectural borders. The engravings were made by Dominicus Custos according to designs by Giovanni Battista Fontana. Each image was accompanied by a short biographical note about the owner of the armour, written by Jacob Schrenk von Notzing.
Part of Archduke Ferdinand's collection can still be seen at Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, some of the exhibits are at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (including the enamelled armour of Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black).
Nesvizh's rich collections of cuirasses, helmets, bracers, pauldrons and breastplates were dispersed between 1926 and 1927. They were sold by the 16th Entailer of Nesvizh to Prince Albrecht Radziwiłł. This led one of the largest collections of armaments to cease to exist.
Some elements of the Nesvizh armoury survived in various museums and private collections. Today, objects from the Nesvizh collection can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Higgins Armoury in Worcester, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden-Rüstkammer and the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.
Officer's Half-Armor
Southern Germany
1560s
Collection of the Trzy Traby Foundation
Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Red (1512 – 1586)
Dominicus Custos (1550-1615), according to Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524-1587)
Innsbruck
1603
The collection of Maciej Radziwiłł
Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, also known as the Orphan (1549 -1616)
Dominicus Custos (1550-1615), according to Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524-1587)
Innsbruck
1603
The collection of Maciej Radziwiłł
Maximillian armour from the Nesvizh collection of Albrecht Radziwiłł (1885- 1935)
Nuremberg
1520 - 1540
Collection of the Trzy Traby Foundation
Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black (1515 - 1565)
Dominicus Custos (1550-1615), according to Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524-1587)
Innsbruck
1603
The collection of Maciej Radziwiłł
Jan Zamoyski (1542 - 1605)
Dominicus Custos (1550-1615), according to Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524-1587)
Innsbruck
1603
The collection of Maciej Radziwiłł
Stefan Batory (1533 – 1586)
Dominicus Custos (1550-1615), according to Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524-1587)
Innsbruck
1603
The collection of Maciej Radziwiłł