Targe offensive, targone da combattimento,... - Lot 81 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Targe offensive, targone da combattimento, en bois peint aux couleurs de l'escouade de San Michele du secteur Tramontana, pour le jeu du pont à Pise en 1807. A Pisan softwood offensive shield, targone da combattimento, bearing the painted colours of the San Michele section of the Tramontana team for the Gioco del Ponte, dated 1807. Of characteristic long slender kite-shape, the inner face recessed for the arm, branded with the date 1807 below the intials V M.N., for Viviani Marchese Niccolò, retaining the original wooden grips fixed by iron nails, one folded over the outer face, the outer face with bevelled edges, and retaining the original red and white painted herringbone pattern. L.: 98.5 cm - W.: 21.5 cm. The colours of this targone are those of the San Michele section that, together with the Calci section, included the bravest and strongest fighters, Forti, placed in the first row of the Northern team Tramontana at the beginning of the fight over the bridge. The Marquess Niccolò Viviani was the civil and military Governor of Pisa and the City Commissioner, Commissario, for the last Gioco del Ponte of the 19th century, held in 1807. A comparable example is preserved in the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts (EIMS 213), illustrated in LA ROCCA, Donald J. & KARCHESKI, Walter J., A rare Armor for the Gioco del Ponte, The Metropolitan Museum Journal 42 (2007), p. 113, figure 11.