The Exercise of Armes (1607): Art, History and Details
The Exercise of Armes at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 1607, leather bound paper, 117 engraved plates. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
The Exercise of Armes (1607) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacob de Gheyn II (Netherlandish, 1565–1629).
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
The Exercise of Armes, published in 1607–8, is one of the most famous manuals of arms. Jacob De Gheyn's book became popular all over Europe and was quickly translated into several languages. Its 117 copper engravings portray the step-by-step sequence for training foot soldiers in the handling of standard weaponry of 17th-century warfare: muskets, matchlock or calivers, and pikes.
Object facts
- Title: The Exercise of Armes
- Date: 1607
- Creator attribution: Jacob de Gheyn II (Netherlandish, 1565–1629)
- Culture: Netherlands, The Hague
- Type: Bound Volume
- Technique: leather bound paper, 117 engraved plates
- Dimensions: Page: 27.5 x 19 cm (10 13/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
- Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
- Department: Medieval Art
- Accession number: 2022.21
A detail from the museum
The depiction of the soldiers in this book inspired Rembrandt when painting his famous The Night Watch.
Collection credit
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
Further reading listed by the museum
- Sotheby's (Firm). The Cottesloe Military Library: Formed by Thomas Fremantle, 4rd Lord Cottesloe. 2019.
View the collection record
See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.
Sources
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