Elegantly Dressed Soldier Tamping His Caliver
c. 1597
Medium
pen and brown ink with gray wash on laid paper
Dimensions
overall: 26 x 17.9 cm (10 1/4 x 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number
2000.117.1
Art Historical Context
In the late 16th century, the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch Republic and Spain, Jacques de Gheyn captured the intricate world of military life with remarkable precision. This drawing, *Elegantly Dressed Soldieramping His Caliver* (c. 1597), showcases a soldier meticulously loading his caliver—a lightweight musket—using a ramrod. De Gheyn, a leading Dutch Mannerist artist renowned for his detailed engrav like *The Exercise of Arms (1607–08), blends martial rigor with fashionable attire, highlighting how soldiers of the era expressed personal style through elaborate doublets, breeches, and...