Filippo Negroli (ca. 1510–1579) was an

armourer Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. In modern terms, an armourer is a member of a military or police force who works in an armoury and maintains and repairs small arms and weapons systems, ...

from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He was renowned as being extremely skilled, and may be considered the most famous armourer of all time. Working together with his younger brothers Giovan Battista (ca. 1511–1591) and Francesco (ca. 1522–1600) in the Negroli family workshop headed by their father Gian Giacomo Negroli (ca. 1463–1543), Filippo was specialized in repoussé of armour, whereas his brother Francesco was renowned for his

damascening Damascening is the art of inlaying different metals into one another—typically, gold or silver into a darkly oxidized steel background—to produce intricate patterns similar to niello. The English term comes from a perceived resemblance to th ...

skills. Filippo's pieces are considered especially remarkable because they were wrought in steel, rather than the more-easily worked iron that was the traditionally assumed medium. He made

parade armour Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, ...

for several esteemed clients, including Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Guidobaldo II della Rovere. Examples of his work include:
Burgonet
of Charles V at La Real Armería, Madrid, Spain.
Burgonet
at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

.
Burgonet
at the

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along ...

.
Burgonet "Alla Romana Antica"
at Kunsthistorisches Museum.Pyhrr, catalogue no. 39

References

Famous Makers and European Centers of Arms and Armor Production
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. * Fred Stern
Did Napoleon wear armor?
artnet.com - magazine. * Alan R. Williams
The Steel of the Negroli
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. * Stuart W. Pyhrr and Jose-A. Godoy (1988
Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

References

Further reading