The rapier in Renaissance Europe: Jewels to die for FENCING has been an Olympic event since the games were revived in the late 19th century. So it is fitting that visitors travelling to London for the 2012 games should find a fine show that focuses on swords, rapiers and daggers. "The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe" is at the Wallace Collection until September 16th. In medieval times knights wore swords only in battle or out hunting. By the early 16th century there was greater mobility between social classes, and it was not always easy to identify people's position. Dress helped define men, and for the first time the sword was worn in polite society. Remodelled and renamed, it had become a fashion statement. The new Renaissance rapier was slim and long; designed to thrust, not slice. The Renaissance man (who could afford to) wanted to be seen as a cultivated, elegant gentleman; his rapier, the largest jewel in his wardrobe, advertised his position. The higher his status, the more fabulous his rapier. One of the finest examples in the exhibition belonged to the future Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II. Its solid gold hilt is set with precious stones and further embellished with exquisite enamelling. It was a showpiece, but like all Renaissance rapiers it was capable of killing too. The sword had been civilised, not pacified. The Wallace has one of the world's finest collections of armour. This exhibition, which has, in addition, brought together objects from Dresden, Milan, Vienna and the Royal Armouries, also includes an array of richly illustrated and scientifically sophisticated fencing manuals on long-term loan from the library of Lord Howard de Walden. The exhibition begins in the late 14th century with a single plain, dark sword. This was a weapon worn by a knight armed for war. Its cross-shaped hilt signified his belief that his skill and power in the field were a gift from God. With it is a 14th-century sword manual, probably the earliest surviving example of the genre. As the visitor progresses through the show towards the Renaissance, there are glorious weapons everywhere he looks. Nine rapiers fan out in a single vitrine, each hilt resembling a richly engraved, swirling abstract sculpture. Milan attracted the best European armourers, outstanding goldsmiths and manufacturers of coveted, luxury textiles. One rare surviving ensemble in the show was made in the northern Italian city for a Saxon duke. It includes a gold rapier and a parrying dagger, both encrusted with diamonds and rubies, and a lavish belt embroidered in gold and set with gems. The rapier was suited equally to duelling and showing off, and duelling quickly became the rage in Europe. There was little romantic about the motives behind it and nothing romantic about the results. Thousands of men died every year of stab wounds. More than a century passed before duels would be formally ended with the first cut to draw blood. Pistols replaced rapiers as the duelling weapons of choice. Fencing became a sport.