 Name of the artist: peter Paul Rubens

 Title of the work: Massacre of the Innocents

 Year the work was created: 1611-1612

 Dimension or size: 142 x 182cm

 Medium or Technique: oil on Panel

 Location of Work: Italy

 Whose collection or gallery where this work is located: Art Gallery of Ontario

 Genre:  biblical Massacre of the Innocents of Bethlehem

 Movement: Renaissance

ICONIC PLANE
The Massacre of the Innocents is a scene in Matthew's nativity narrative in which Herod the Great, King
of Judea, orders the killing of all male children under the age of two in the Bethlehem area.

SUBJECT OF THE PAINTING

Along the top right margin of the painting you see another tragedy about to happen: a baby held high
above by another soldier is just about to be flung down on the ground already covered with pale, limb
corpses. But there is hope as the young girl, seen by the solder’s left leg, raises her arms towards the
baby, hoping to catch him. There is a lot going on in this painting but if you start off by observing these
two groups in the center and on the right: the mother, her child, and the soldier – you will feel deeply
the drama of the entire picture.

Rubens masterfully portrayed a wide range of emotions: desperation, violence, grief, motherly love and
mercilessness. At the time when he completed The Massacre of the Innocents, it was intended as a
commentary on the political and social situation in the Netherlands, which was in the midst of the Eighty
Years’ War started as a revolt for independence. Thereby, the present painting could be a disquiet plea
against war.

KIND
The Massacre of the Innocents is a scene in Matthew's birth account (2:16–18) in which Herod the
Great, King of Judea, orders the killing of all male children under the age of two in the Bethlehem area.

TYPE
The Massacre of the Innocents depicts the episode of the biblical Massacre of the Innocents of
Bethlehem, as related in the Gospel of Matthew. Rubens put the drama outside Herod's palace. Herod
was the king who ordered the killing of all young male children in Bethlehem. Three groups can be
distinguished. In the center a woman draws the eye by holding a blood stained cloth over her head. Her
face shows despair. In the groups to the left and right women try to stop the soldiers - to no avail.

HOW THE ARTIST DESCRIBES OR DEPICTS THE ART

Rubens depicted a wide spectrum of emotions masterfully, including desperation, wrath, despair,
maternal love, and mercilessness. The Massacre of the Innocents was meant as a commentary on the
political and social condition in the Netherlands at the time it was finished, which was in the midst of the
Eighty Years' War, which began as a revolution for independence. As a result, the current picture could
be interpreted as a tense protest against war.

CONTEXTUAL PLANE

Only a few years before to Rubens' first painting on the subject, Antwerp had been involved in combat,
which had been temporarily halted by the 1609 truce. Over 8,000 people were killed by Calvinists and
Catholics alike in a single year as the Spanish forces ruling the Netherlands attempted to repel
Protestant armies. In Antwerp, massacres were common; 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the city,
Protestant rebel leader Prince Mauritz commissioned Cornelis van Haarlem to paint the identical
scenario for Haarlem's town hall, ostensibly to show Spanish atrocities against the Dutch people.
Antwerp, on the other hand, remained a Catholic bastion and emerged as a major center of Counter-
Reformation thought.

SOURCE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents_(Rubens)#Later_version

https://galleryintell.com/artex/the-massacre-of-the-innocents-peter-paul-rubens/#:~:text=At%20the
%20time%20when%20he,a%20disquiet%20plea%20against%20war.

https://www.peterpaulrubens.net/the-massacre-of-innocents.jsp