Team Goes to The Big Apple - The Last Knight

Five members of the Historic Equitation team travelled to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to view "The Last Knight" exhibit as our end-of-season team outing. This was my second trip to the States while my partner was heavily pregnant - this time at 30 weeks with our daughter.

The Exhibition

The exhibition, titled The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, examines European armour during the Renaissance through Emperor Maximilian I's life (1459-1519). The show featured 180 objects selected from some thirty public and private collections and marked the 500th anniversary of Maximilian's death.

The Team Experience

We arrived late in New York and gathered at an Italian restaurant to plan our museum visits. Dr. Tobias Capwell, curator at London's Wallace Collection, accompanied us, noting this was "the most important exhibit of armour in a generation." We spent four days examining armour pieces, photographing details, and discussing their significance.

Notable Highlights

Among the many pieces we photographed and studied:

• Design sketches with Maximilian's handwritten notes
• A shaffron (horse armour) by Conrad Seusenhofer
• A toy jouster from circa 1505
• Saint George and the Dragon artwork
• Armour pieces from various master craftsmen

Key Insights

Visiting in person proved invaluable compared to online images. I appreciated seeing pieces from angles never photographed before, particularly shield construction details relevant to modern jousting practice. This exposure inspired changes to my armour-building techniques.

The collective knowledge of the experienced group enhanced the experience, providing context and significance details not available from exhibit placards alone.