Soldier Armed with Broadsword and Shield

An elegantly dressed soldier in a flamboyant Mannerist pose grips a large, billowing banner that dominates the left side of the composition. He is adorned in a slashed doublet, a stiff lace ruff, and a plumed hat, looking over his shoulder with a confident expression. In the lower background, a disciplined rank of infantrymen stands on a plain beneath a cloudy sky.

This work is a quintessential example of Haarlem Mannerism, a style that prioritized technical virtuosity and stylized anatomy to convey the heroic 'virtù' of the Dutch Republic. While military in subject, the print belongs to a tradition of portraying the 'Miles Christianus' or the morally fortified individual, an ideal central to the Neostoic and Humanist circles of Goltzius and his mentor Coornhert.