Blind Man's Buff

Between 1862 and 1866 Menzel spent long stretches in the royal palace in Berlin, working on a huge official canvas of the coronation of King William I of Prussia. Alongside that commission he drew suit after suit of old armour and made a run of small gouache studies. This sheet, dated 1867, turns those studies into a scene. A knight in Renaissance field armour, the kind worn in battle rather than at tournaments, has a young woman in a crown of flowers at his shoulder, and she lifts a small posy to his closed visor. Red satin lines the neck of the steel, padding that made it easier to wear and quieter. The title names the children's game with a blindfolded player, and here the helmet does that job. Behind the pair a bearded soldier in a Spanish morion holds a halberd.