heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...

, the background of the shield is called the ''field''. The field is usually composed of one or more

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

s (

colour Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorp ...

s or

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s) or furs. The field may be divided or may consist of a variegated pattern. In rare modern cases, the field or a subdivision thereof is not a tincture but is shown as a scene from a

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

, or, in the case of the 329th Fighter Group of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

, blazoned as ''the sky proper''.''Air Force Combat Units of World War II'', p.210 Landscape fields are regarded by many heralds as unheraldic and debased, as they defy the heraldic ideal of simple, boldly-coloured images, and they cannot be consistently drawn from

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

. The arms of the Inveraray and District Community Council in Scotland have as a field ''In waves of the sea''. The correct language of heraldry is very flexible and virtually any image may be blazoned in a correct manner; for example "sky proper" might be blazoned simply ''Azure'' or '' bleu celeste'', whilst "waves of the sea" might be blazoned correctly as ''Azure, 3 bars argent'' which would provide 3 wavy thick white lines on a blue field.

Notes

{{heraldry-stub Heraldry

See also

Notes