Hey how's it going, world builder, artist and other such things here. I was wondering about a certain article of clothing, it looks like a type of kidney belt. https://i.imgur.com/LbBzgO8.jpg here's the picture. So, obviously someone thought of the idea in ye olden times but this picture is a depiction of the past to them since is showing Jesus, and ofcourse it was common for artists to paint some "Goofy" interpretations for what clothes and armor looked like in the prior periods.
So, the specific question I'd like to ask is were their any belts like this or similar to kidney belts around the years 1300-1700, so large time period I know. As far as I know, there were arming girdles, but those usually cloth and not exactly like that I believe. Examples, names and pictures are all greatly appreciated.
It's a painting by Giacomo Jaquerio , and according to the Wiki page it's in the Abbey of Sant'Antonio di Ranverso, Buttigliera Alta, near Turin, and is from around 1410.
This is a very evil-looking crew of soldiers, on the way to the Crucifixion, and they are holding recognizable weapons, including ( to the right of the linked image) a crossbow. A good use for such a broad belt would be as a crossbow belt, or Samson belt. A crossbow required a lot of force to load: it had a very short pull, and so that had to be a very strong one. There were a few ways to spann, or cock one- there was a kind of windlass, and a ratchet-and-pawl mechanism called a cranequin. There was a long compound lever, called a Goat's Foot. And there was a rather wide belt with a hook dangling from it. The crossbowman could hang the bowstring on that, and then step down into a stirrup at the front of the bow to pull the bow down while the string was held back. Naturally, that belt had to be rather wide and strong. The one in Jaquerio's painting is wider than the usual ones I have seen (though it's not my field) , but if Jaquerio was wanting to show something real, not something fantastic, a Samson belt would not be a bad guess.
There are some more pictures of Samson belts and other crossbow gear here
