Staande soldaat met musket in beide handen, naar rechts gedraaid 1630 - 1665

Curator: Isn't it striking? There's a tangible sense of apprehension simmering beneath the surface. Editor: I agree, it’s incredibly evocative! What is it that we're looking at exactly? Curator: This is an engraving titled "Standing Soldier with Musket in Both Hands, Turned to the Right" by Salomon Savery. It’s held here at the Rijksmuseum and dates sometime between 1630 and 1665. You can really see the period detailing in his outfit, the way the folds fall... Editor: I'm immediately drawn to the man's posture. He’s holding the musket almost reverentially, but with such tension! Is that smoke still coming from the barrel? What was the labor process like for Savery to create the etching? It appears that it could be easily produced at a print shop with some fairly simple mechanization. Curator: You know, it’s amazing what these early engravers could do. He has managed to capture such character using line alone. This isn’t just any soldier; this is a man burdened by something – maybe by war itself. Editor: Right. Engraving, as a process, is interesting precisely because of this relationship between the singular action—the artist's labor of creating the matrix, so to speak—and the potential for reproducibility and distribution, especially given the militarization and material demands of this moment in history. Were these soldiers workers of the Dutch Republic? The etching looks to be rather small in scale, what was this image originally produced for? Curator: These prints were often included in albums of costume studies, it wasn't necessarily about this particular solider, or their personal history, as such, it was more to be the ‘ideal’ solider. It really invites reflection, don't you think, especially when we see this single image from that time. The idea of war and its impact really crystallizes here, doesn't it? Editor: I do wonder how aware Savery would have been of his work becoming part of this massive propaganda campaign via printed imagery... Something to really think about the next time one picks up this image for reflection.