The Exercise of Armes (details)
by GHEYN, Jacob de II, Woodcut, 178 x 127 mm (each)
Arms drill was a highly developed practice in the Dutch Republic, elucidated in a manual first published in 1607 and illustrated by Jacob de Gheyn II. Rembrandt may have referred to its prints as he painted the the figures wielding muskets in his Nightwatch, for their poses conform strikingly to those in the illustrations shown here.