Abstract
That painters of fifteenth and sixteenth century Flanders were aware of the aesthetic possibilities of the polished surfaces to be found in armor one sees in the delight taken in the portrayal of reflections, reflections which underlined the dual nature, the microcosm and macrocosm of the world in fifteenth century Flemish eyes. Recall for a moment the salade of an archer with the skyline of a town reflected on its bowl appearing in the Judgment of Cambyses by Gerard David in the Municipal Museum of Fine Art in Bruges or the breastplate of an infidel reflecting martyred and martyrers alike in Hans Memling's Martyrdom of St. Ursula on the reliquary chasse of that saint in the Hospital of St. John in Bruges.