Cuirass (Chair-a'ina)

A steel cuirass with a pointed arched top and a raised face-shaped boss at its center. Rows of oval medallions etched with small figures and animals fill the plate, beneath a band of gold-inlaid script and a finely worked crest.

Look closer: Small figures and animals are etched inside the lower-left medallions.

Artist

Unknown

Date

first half 19th century

Medium

Steel, copper alloy, textile (velvet)

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3460 × 4000 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William B. Osgood Field, 1949