Answer:
HEILBRUNN TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY
The dexoration of art and armor
With few exceptions, arms and armor of virtually all periods and from all the world’s cultures were decorated to varying degrees. The desire to embellish objects of everyday and special use was naturally extended to those that served such important purposes as obtaining food, self-defense, and maintaining power. Most cultures valued weapons and armor as signs of rank and status, as traditional symbols of the warrior class, and as diplomatic gifts. However, it was the use and function of the individual weapon or armor that determined why, how, and to what extent an object was decorated.
While the equipment of the common man-at-arms was often plain or the decoration kept to a minimum, it was the arms and armor of the higher levels of society—nobility, military commanders, and elite warriors—that would conspicuously be adorned with costly decoration (2008.638.1). In times when wealth equalled power, this degree of decoration was as much an expression of the wearer’s status and rank as it was indicative of the value placed on such arms and armor by the owner. However, on arms and armor for practical use, on the battlefield or for hunting, care was taken that the decoration did not impede function. Only the equipment and accoutrements for tournaments and especially for ceremonial use were sometimes so lavishly decorated that the importance of the decoration began to supercede the function of the actual object. A somewhat different variety is the symbolic decoration that was meant to empower both the object and its owner with magical and apotropaic qualities, to justify claims to power or to denote religious beliefs, education, and sophistication.
