Sergeant

A soldier stands in a dynamic, swaggering pose, wearing a voluminous slashed doublet, a large plumed hat, and puffed breeches. He holds a halberd over his right shoulder and points toward a landscape where troops are massing near a city. The engraving uses swelling and tapering lines to emphasize the physical presence and muscular calves of the figure.

This print is part of a series depicting the bodyguard of Emperor Rudolf II, whose court in Prague was the primary late 16th-century center for Hermeticism, alchemy, and the occult sciences. While the subject is military, it represents the 'active life' (vita activa) and the Virtù celebrated within the Mannerist circles that sought to unify physical prowess with intellectual and artistic refinement.