What was massacre of the innocents

A soldier herds women into a house at the extreme left; another soldier carries a baby one of the few that have not been changed out of a nearer door, while against the wall of the same house some neighbours seem to be consoling a grieving mother.

Moving to the right, a standing woman grieves over her dead baby lying in the snow changed to an array of hams and cheeses. A couple seem to beg a soldier to take their daughter rather than kill their baby son changed to a goose or swan.

A group of soldiers stab with pikes at a pile of babies changed to livestock to ensure that they are all dead, whilst women run off in horror as another Lansquenet stabs a baby changed to a young boar. At this point a distinct group forms as ugly and ridiculous-looking villagers remonstrate with a young, elegantly-dressed herald who originally had the symbol of the Habsburg eagle on his tabard overpainted with a simple decoration.

Reading across the foreground right to left we see a baby changed to a bundle torn from a mother and her daughter. At the left foreground another sergeant pursues a fleeing mother and child, a group not painted over though partly lost when this side of the panel was cut down at some point in the painting's history.

The troop of armoured knights is led by a man, whose features have been altered. Public domain. Accept No, rather not. Add to your set. Download image. Make a print of your favourite detail Download this work and make your own creation Order a ready-made poster of this work.

Identification Title s The Massacre of the Innocents. Object type painting. Object number SK-A Description De kindermoord te Bethlehem. Artist painter: Cornelis Cornelisz. Dating Physical features oil on canvas.

Material canvas oil paint paint. Made guardian and defender of Galilee at the age of fifteen, Herod exhibited wisdom beyond his years. He rose through the political ranks to become king, building cities and impressive edifices.

Suspicious and greedy, he executed his wife and children for plotting against him. In his old age, he suffered from a gruesome skin disease and a guilty conscience, eventually leading him to attempt suicide unsuccessfully with a sword. Field Projects Dept. Science Dept. The J. Paul Getty Museum. The Massacre of the Innocents.