A soldier pulling out the ramrod from its holder, from the Musketeers series, plate 25, in Wapenhandelinghe van Roers Musquetten Ende Spiessen (The Exercise of Arms)
after Jacques de Gheyn II Netherlandish
Workshop of Jacques de Gheyn II Netherlandish
Not on view
From a series of 117 numbered plates from the military drill manual, "Wapenhandelinghe van Roers Musquetten ende Speissen" (The Exercise of Arms). The series is divided into three sets: Marksmen (42 plates), Musketeers (43 plates), and Lansquenets (32 plates). The Exercise of Arms was first published as a complete volume in 1608, and several more editions followed shortly after, with Dutch, French, German, English, and Danish versions produced.