Maximilian armour

The armour is characterized by armets and close helmets with bellows visors; small fan-shaped narrow and parallel fluting—often covering most of the harness (but never the greaves); etching; work taken from woodcuts; sharply waisted cuirasses, and squared sabatons.

Some armour combined long pleat-like fluting with lines of rectangular shapes imitating contemporary fabrics decorated with slashing or quilting.

A trend that developed in 15th and especially 16th-century Europe was to create armour that not only provided the maximum amount of protection, but was also visually pleasing.

[4] It is interesting to find that the cuirass-shape of the Schott-Sonnenberg style was foreshadowed in Germany half a century before it finally appeared.

Gerhard Quaas [de] opines that fluted armour was only distributed after Maximilian's death and direct influence of the emperor cannot be proven.

Armour designed by the Helmschmieds for Maximilian in particular increasingly favoured a "rounder and simpler form, termed 'classical' by the historians of armor, in contrast to the angularity of the 'baroque Gothic'.

Maximilan armour with grotesque mask. In the background are two other Maximilian suits of armour with sparrow-beaked and bellows-shaped visors. Photo taken in the Polish Army Museum.
Schott-Sonnenberg Style of Armour (worn with sallet and gothic gauntlets)
Burgkmair – S. Croce – Basilica Cycle 6