Descrizione
Bladed weapons, firearms, and armor not only tell the long-standing tradition of Brescia in weapons production but also reconstruct, through an exhibition path of 580 pieces (part of the total 1090 pieces bequeathed by the industrialist Luigi Marzoli), the history that is both warlike and artistic enclosed in the armory objects, particularly from Milan and Brescia from the 15th to the 18th centuries. In addition to the core collection, there are another three hundred pieces belonging to the Civic collections, especially 19th-century firearms.
Through a path of ten exhibition rooms, the Museum traces the history of craftsmanship that borders on art, starting from the meanings of armor in the 15th century, the century of heavy cavalry, where helmets and breastplates became strategic elements. Among the most significant and rare pieces are a large Venetian-style helmet and the bascinet with a dog's muzzle visor, as well as a 13th-century sword, the oldest piece on display.
There is a broad representation of 16th-century weapons, where offensive tactics changed, and the construction of moves in battle became increasingly dynamic, requiring more comfortable and lighter armor, such as the superb Maximilian armor, with its shiny, almost theatrical contours. Alongside the battlefield requirements, the Museum's rooms also reveal the parallel purpose of representation and social recognition that weapons and armor began to acquire in public parades as a display of ostentation and admiration. This is evidenced by the evocative reconstruction, in the so-called Moose Room, of the two escort squads of the knight, composed of foot soldiers and horsemen, armed with halberds and partisans, which enhance the overall sense of spectacle. Aesthetic taste never abandons the craftsman's hand, sometimes even taking precedence over technical needs, as in the two parade shields featured in the Hall of Luxury Armor: shields, one of which is signed and dated 1563, are admirable for their embossed work with gilded sections and the refined subject of the Triumph of Bacchus, making them true works of art.
The historical-artistic journey, listening to what the weapons tell, also includes the evocative history of the sword, which evolved from a mixed weapon, both thrusting and cutting, to become a thin instrument for fencing, as documented by the examples on display from the mid-16th to the 18th century, increasingly functional and designed to protect the contender's hand.
Among halberds, cannons, muskets, and arquebuses, a dedicated section of the Museum is devoted to the rich representation of firearms, made by the most famous barrel masters such as the Cominazzo, Chinelli, Dafino, and Acquisti families. Original both for the study of the mechanisms of igniting gunpowder and for the decorations, the weapons on display, whether of Brescian or foreign manufacture, represent an unusual mirror of a work of artisanal engineering over the centuries.
For lovers of architecture and ancient art, a visit to the Arms Museum allows one to appreciate portions of frescoes from the Visconti era that decorate the rooms of the Mastio, the only testimony of the defensive structure given to the fortress in the 14th century. Creating an evocative exhibition context is also the coexistence of a Roman temple from the 1st century AD, on which the building stands, with its visible perimeter of foundations and a wide staircase, remnants of the various temples that stood on the Cidneo, a prestigious acropolis for the Roman era.
