Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms.... , the background of the shield
Shield
A shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand, as opposed to armour or a bullet proof vest.... is called the field. The field is usually composed of one or more tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to blazon a coat of arms.... s (colours or metal
Metal
In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms.... s) or furs.
In extremely rare cases, the field (or a subdivision thereof) is not a tincture, but may be a landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including physical elements such as landforms, living elements of flora and fauna, abstract elements such as lighting and weather conditions, and human elements, for instance human activity or the built environment.... . Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies , was a British people author on heraldry. By profession, he was a barrister but he also worked as a journalist and novelist.... , in his Art of Heraldry, states that while there are many coats in British heraldry in which the charges make up a landscape, there is only one, the arms of Lopes
Lopes
Lopes is a common surname in the Portuguese language, namely in Portugal and Brazil. It was originally a Patronymic, meaning Son of Lopo .... , where the field itself is so described: "In a landscape field, a fountain, therefrom issuing a palm-tree all proper." However, Fox-Davies is incorrect, as in 1751 Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie was a United Kingdom colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of Virginia Colony from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 to January 1758, as deputy for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun.... in Scotland
Scotland
conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px... was granted a coat of the following blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of, most often, a coat of arms or flag, which enables a person to construct or reconstruct the appropriate image.... : Party per Fesse two landskips the first (the uppermost) holding a wild Indian at full draught his bow bent, marking at a stag standing at full Gaze Regardant proper The Emblem of the Earth, And in base, the Emblem of water with a sloop under sail, within sight of and making towards a distant land Representing America. There are some examples of more specificially described landscapes, such as in the arms of Höerskool Brandwag. Landscape fields are regarded by many heralds as unheraldic and deprecated, as they cannot be consistently drawn from blazon.
The arms of Count Cesare Fani are along the same lines, as the field is blazoned as "sky proper."
The arms of the Inveraray and District Community Council in Scotland have as a field In waves of the sea.
For further detail on the field, see variations of the field.
