The Municipality of Brescia and the Brescia Musei Foundation are inaugurating the first appointment in the Fortress at the “Luigi Marzoli” Weapons Museum with the successful and proven Andata e Tornado format, the cultural project that since 2019 has seen the Brescia Musei Foundation engaged in transforming the “departures” connected to loan requests from prestigious institutions in "arrivals" in our museums of guest works, with the temporary exhibition of the barrier corsage that belonged to Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1562-1612).

The barrier corselet of the Royal Museums is one of the most luxurious armor produced in Milan in the second half of the sixteenth century and is distinguished by a refined, as well as articulated, decoration in which the mastery and refinement achieved by the Lombard engravers is evident, to the point that the duke of Mantua, famous throughout Europe for the magnificence of his court, the spectacular parties organized in his city and the extreme elegance in his clothes, he had himself portrayed on several occasions with this armour.

The presence of this masterpiece in Brescia is a particularly significant moment for the city, because with this cultural project the corsaletto is temporarily reunited with the very rich collection of the noble Martinengo family from Brescia, where it was found until the beginning of the 19th century, before the sale of the 1839 to the King of Sardinia Carlo Alberto to enrich the Royal Armory, inaugurated two years earlier. It is not known exactly when the armor passed from the Gonzagas to the Martinengos, but it is almost certain that this happened around the early seventeenth century, when Girolamo II Martinengo of Padernello held important, yet delicate, military positions for Duke Vincenzo.

The armor of Turin is exhibited next to another important barrier corselet from the Marzoli Collection, which belonged to Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, marked by the symbol of the famous Master of the Tre Torri Castle: the visitor to the Museum of Arms can thus experience the dialogue between two of the most prestigious barrier armours, almost contemporary, which belonged to important Italian ducal families who, in 1608, united by celebrating the wedding between Francesco Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo, and Margherita di Savoia, daughter of Carlo Emanuele I.

Thanks to the generous loan from the Royal Museums , it will be possible to admire the two armor side by side for the first time, in relation to other works exhibited in the room dedicated to luxury weapons produced in the Lombard sixteenth century, to understand the magnificence of the Italian courts and their parties, of of which the tournament at the barrier was often the highlight.