This exhibition showcases three engravings from Dutch engraver Jacques de Gheyn’s 112 print series The Exercise of Arms (1607-8). The three prints included in our exhibition depict sequences for handling three different weapons by three different soldiers. Print no. 35 shows a caliver, a smaller bore rifle, loaded from the flask. The soldier handling the weapon wears a steel helmet and broadsword. Another print (no.34) shows a musket loaded from a bandolier and a larger weapon, supported on a rest, which is being carried in the soldier's left hand. Conclusively, the third print (no. 6) depicts the proper way to use a pike, a spear-like weapon.[1]
Johan de Middelste (II), the cousin of Prince Maurits of the Netherlands, commissioned Gheyn for the illustration of these prints. Middelste wished to drill Dutch soldiers on the proper use of musket fire and saw print distribution as the best way to get his combat drills seen. The idea was to produce a series of step-by-step drawings of drill movements that could be standardized and repeated on command. By drilling their soldiers in the proper use of musket fire, the Dutch infantry is often credited with revolutionizing the conduct of battle. During the time in which the images from The Exercise of Arms were consumed by the public, the musket, an infantryman's light gun with a long barrel, typically smooth-bored, muzzleloading, and fired from the shoulder, was a relatively new invention and was quickly becoming a more widely used weapon of choice for soldiers.[2]
Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642) depicts soldiers showing off their skilled handling of their weapons. Rembrandt depicts his soldiers in mid-action of actually firing their weapons, showing off the ability needed to handle such weaponry. The images within Rembrandt’s masterpiece (man loading firearm, shooting, blowing out used powder from his pan) are in some part derived from De Gheyn’s engravings in the instructional manual for using this type of weapon, The Exercise of Arms. [3]
Johan de Middelste (II), the cousin of Prince Maurits of the Netherlands, commissioned Gheyn for the illustration of these prints. Middelste wished to drill Dutch soldiers on the proper use of musket fire and saw print distribution as the best way to get his combat drills seen. The idea was to produce a series of step-by-step drawings of drill movements that could be standardized and repeated on command. By drilling their soldiers in the proper use of musket fire, the Dutch infantry is often credited with revolutionizing the conduct of battle. During the time in which the images from The Exercise of Arms were consumed by the public, the musket, an infantryman's light gun with a long barrel, typically smooth-bored, muzzleloading, and fired from the shoulder, was a relatively new invention and was quickly becoming a more widely used weapon of choice for soldiers.[2]
Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642) depicts soldiers showing off their skilled handling of their weapons. Rembrandt depicts his soldiers in mid-action of actually firing their weapons, showing off the ability needed to handle such weaponry. The images within Rembrandt’s masterpiece (man loading firearm, shooting, blowing out used powder from his pan) are in some part derived from De Gheyn’s engravings in the instructional manual for using this type of weapon, The Exercise of Arms. [3]
1 Larry Silver, “The Exercise of Arms”, in The Plains of Mars: European War Prints; 1500-1825; from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, edited by James Clifton & Leslie M. Scatone, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 76.
2 Silver, “The Exercise of Arms”, 76.
3 Harry Berger Jr., "Chapter 14: Captain Cocq and the Unruly Musketeer," Manhood, Marriage & Mischief: Rembrandt's 'Night Watch' & Other Dutch Group Portraits, Jan. 2006, 185-190.
2 Silver, “The Exercise of Arms”, 76.
3 Harry Berger Jr., "Chapter 14: Captain Cocq and the Unruly Musketeer," Manhood, Marriage & Mischief: Rembrandt's 'Night Watch' & Other Dutch Group Portraits, Jan. 2006, 185-190.