Standing soldier; turned toward the right; on his head, he wears a helmet with a large plume; in his left hand, he holds a lance with a pennant on the tip; his right hand rests on the hilt of a sword, which wears on his left side 1576

Melchior Lorck made this print of a standing soldier sometime in the 16th century. It shows us the figure of a landsknecht, a mercenary soldier then common throughout Europe, standing in full armour, lance in hand, a tower behind him. Lorck was from Flensburg, now in Germany, then part of Denmark, and he made his name travelling Europe and working for royal houses. Landsknechts like this one played a key role in the religious wars that swept the continent at the time. The artist here shows us the archetypal soldier, and the tower in the background may be symbolic of the power struggles being played out across Europe at the time. To understand this image more fully, we can look at historical records of the battles and sieges fought at the time, where landsknechts were often deployed as shock troops. Considering art as a document of its time, and the artist as someone involved in its social and political conflicts, gives us a richer view of its significance.