Scottish polearms and early 16th centuries. Though clearly a pole weapon, its exact form is obscure. David Caldwell suggests it may have been similar to a Holy Water Sprinkler. The Jeddart staff (also Jedburgh or Jedwart) is a polearm of the 16th and 17th centuries with a glaive-like blade which is fixed to its haft by two sockets, in the manner of a bardiche. Form D in the Caldwell classification. The Lochaber axe is a simple axe with a broad curved blade usually attached to its long haft at two points. On the back of the blade is a simple hook. This
Altarpiece of the Halberd to the Papal States. The resistance had been brutally suppressed, many of the rebels having been beheaded by order of the papal legate. The upside-down halberd has been thus interpreted as a symbol of peace. The monumental composition is taken directly from the tradition of Holy Conversations in the Venetian School, inaugurated by Antonello da Messina's San Cassiano Altarpiece. It shows the Madonna and Child on a high throne, with two angels holding the crown (a 15th-century Flemish painting element also in use in Italy). In the lower part are four saints: Stephen, John the Evangelist, Simon the Zealot and