Massacre of the Innocents

Massacre of the Innocents.

The bible in Matthew 2:16 describes a massacre of babies on order of King Herod after hearing of the birth of a new king, Jesus, in his realm. This incident, known as the massacre (or slaughter) of the innocents, exemplifying the horror of harming children with the power of the state, has inspired artists from Roman times to the twenty first century. Here are a few of their works. Clicking on the image brings a larger version.

Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Vatican
created: 432-440 restored in 1593 and the 1990s

Cathedral Treasury, Milan
created: c500 fifth or sixth century

Trier
created: 980-93
for Archbishop Egbert of Trier

capital, Basilica of Saint Sernin, Toulouse
created: 1080-1120

British Museum
created: c1125

Church of Raasted, Denmark
created: c1125-1150

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
created: c1150
A medieval artistic low point in drawing skill.

church of St. Nicholas, Burgos, Spain
created: 1163 or earlier, restored 1910
Photographed on site by Richard Stracke.

National Library of the Netherlands
created: c1200

St John's College, Cambridge
created: c1270-80
from f.15v of MS K.26, one of a sequence of 46 Biblical illustrations

tympanum of Strasbourg Cathedral
created: c1275

Giovanni Pisano, c1250-1314
created: 1301

Giotto di Bondone, c1267-1337
created: c1305

Giotto di Bondone, c1267-1337
created: 1306

Giovanni Pisano, c1250-1314
created: 1302-11

Duccio di Buoninsegna, c1255-1319
created: 1308-11

Kariye-Camii, Byzantine Church, Istanbul
created: 1316-1321 (date of restoration)

Jean Pucelle, c1300-1355
created: c1324
The depiction is similar to that of Pisano.

Pietro Lorenzetti, 1280-1348
created: c1330

British Library
created: c1350

Giusto di Giovanni Menabuoi, c1320-1391
created: c1370

Maestro di Campli
created: 1350-1400

Bartolo di Fredi, c1330-c1409
created: c1380

Master Bertram of Minden, c1345-1415
created: 1383

Master Bertram of Minden, c1345-1415
created: c1400

Gentile da Fabriano, c1370-1427
created: c1425

Fra Angelico, c1387-1455
created: 1451-53

Getty Museum
created: 1450-1459
unknown Flemish artist, Bruges, 1450s

Euing Collection, Glasgow University
created: c1460

Swabia Germany
created: 1450-70

Sano di Pietro, 1406-1481
created: c1470

Bernardino Jacopi Butinone, c1435-1507
created: c1480 (undated)

Meister der Freisinger/Augsburger Heimsuchung
created: c1480

Hugo van der Goes, c1440-1482
created: c1480
Right panel of a triptych, artist uncertain

Hans Memling, c1430-1494
created: 1480

Matteo di Giovanni, c1430-1495
created: 1481

Matteo di Giovanni, c1430-1495
created: 1482

Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1449-1494
created: 1486-90

Matteo di Giovanni, c1430-1495
created: 1488

Master of the Virgo inter Virgines, active 1470-1505
created: 1490-1499
right panel of polyptych

National Museum in Warsaw
created: 1497-1500
Left panel of Jerusalem triptych

Collégiale Basilique Notre-Dame, Beaune France
created: c1500

Saint Blasius Church, Kaufbeuren
created: c1500
Bottom right panel of the main altar

Jean Poyet, active 1483-1503
created: c1500

Marcantonio Raimondi, c1475-1534
created: c1510

Girolamo Mocetto, c1470-1532
created: 1500-25
They are believed to be fragments from a single work

Amico Aspertini
created: 1510-20

Lucas Cranach, c1472-1553
created: 1515

Domenico Campagnola, c1500-1564
created: 1517

Giovanni Angelo del Maino, c1475-c1525
created: c1520

Ludovico Mazzolino, c1480-1528
created: c1520 undated

Ludovico Mazzolino, c1480-1528
created: 1510-1530

Giovanni Francesco Caroto, 1480-c1555
created: 1520-25
Christ flees with his family at the right

Everhard Rensig or Gerhard Remisch
created: 1522-26

Pieter Coecke van Aelst, 1502-1550
created: 1524-31

Lambert Lombard, 1505-1566
created: 1532-1533
right inner wing of triptych

Bonifazio Veronese, 1487-1553
created: 1533
Internet research cannot assure that this is a historic artifact.

Andreas Osiander, 1498-1552
created: 1540
Mayhem in the foreground, but baby Jesus escapes in the background.

Daniele da Volterra aka Ricciarelli, 1509-1566
created: 1555

Daniele da Volterra aka Ricciarelli, 1509-1566
created: 1557
Life in a group home.

Pieter Bruegel, c1525-1569
created: 1565-67
Decades after its creation this work was altered changing the theme from massacre to plunder.

Gillis Mostaert, 1528-1598
created: 1554-1598

Getty Museum
created: 1578
Possibly northern Bohemian. Tankard usually held beer.

Hendrik Goltzius, 1558-1617
created: c1584
unfinished

Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, 1518-1594
created: 1582-87

Lucas van Valckenborch, c1535-1597
created: 1586

Giacomo Paracca
created: c1587

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1562-1638
created: 1590
Artist with a posterior fetish

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, 1562-1638
created: 1591

Gillis van Valckenborch, c1570-1622
created: 1590-1595

Aegidius Sadeler, c1570-1629
created: 1580-1629

Guido Reni, 1572-1642
created: 1611

Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640
created: 1611-12
Mis-classified for over a century, it was rediscovered as a Rubens in 2001. In July 2002 it became the most expensive painting ever sold when Sotheby's in London auctioned it for £49.5 million.

Frans Francken, 1581-1642
created: c1620

Alessandro Turchi, 1578-1649
created: c1620

Jacques Callot, 1592-1635
created: 1621-25

Paul Maupin, 1553–1647
created: c1625

Nicholas Poussin, 1594-1665
created: c1628
Social worker apprehends baby from abusive mother.

Nicholas Poussin, 1594-1665
created: 1628
Some experts dispute the attribution to Poussin.

Votive Church of Modena
created: c1634

Pietro Testa, 1611-1650
created: 1630-40
A soldier stabs an innocent baby while Christ with an anachronistic cross escapes by raft.

Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640
created: 1636-38
A less notorious painting by Rubens.

Pacecco de Rosa, 1600-1664
created: 1640

Jacques Stella, 1596-1657
created: c1640

Sébastien Bourdon, 1616-1671
created: 1640-45
Since the Hermitage uses low lighting, this is a retinex enhanced version.

Paulus Pontius, 1603-1685
created: 1643

Giovanni Cristoforo Storer, 1611-1671
created: c1645

Valerio Castello, 1624-1659
created: c1653

Guillam Forchondt, 1608–1678
created: c1655 undated

Valerio Castello, 1624-1659
created: 1656-58

Nicolas Chevillard, no biography
created: 1657

Sebastiano Mazzoni, 1611-1678
created: c1660
From the kind of website that hawks fakes.

Charles LeBrun, 1619-1690
created: c1665

Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, 1638-1689
created: c1670

Hedinger church, Sigmaringen
created: c1682

St Catherine's Chapel, Cathedral of St. Mary, Pamplona, Spain
created: 1687

Luca Giordano, 1634-1705
created: c1700

Francesco Trevisani, 1656-1746
created: 1700-10

Bertholet Flemalle, 1614-1675
created: c1738

Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, 1714-1789
created: c1760
Attributed to Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, 1714-1789
created: 1763
auctioned 2010

Léon Cogniet, 1794-1880
created: 1824
While medieval and renaissance painters showed mayhem and murder, Cogniet shows only fear.

Francois Joseph Navez, 1787-1869
created: 1824
The hushed baby boy is a theme of this period. Here is an enhanced version photographed by Lee Sandstead that may be its original appearance.

Gustave Doré, 1832-1883
created: c1860 undated
Illustration for published bible.

Angelo Visconti, 1829 - 1861
created: 1860-61
training exercise for social workers

Middlestone
created: c1863
in imitation of Cogniet

Eugène Lacomblé, 1828-1905
created: 1868

Gustave Doré, 1832-1883
created: 1869-72

Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1834-1890
created: 1875

James Tissot, 1836-1902
created: 1886-1894

Eric Gill, 1882-1940
created: 1914

Antoni Gaudí, 1852-1926
created: c1926

created: 1976-1982

Paramaecium: Australian death/doom metal band, formed 1991
created: 1993 recording date
Link for music Massacre of the Innocents (ogg, 7:29)

Faroe Islands
created: 2001 issued September 17
Mothers react to the senseless murder of their babies by King Herod's soldiers