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Background. The painting depicts an event described in the Gospel of Saint Matthew 2:16-18 in the New Testament of the Bible: after King Herod was told by the Magi of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, he ordered his soldiers to kill all of the infant children in Bethlehem below the age of 2 years.
The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a biblical story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew ( 2:16 – 18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. [2] "
Bruegel’s Massacre of the Innocents was a popular image, repeated numerous times by Bruegel’s imitators. The best versions (Brussels, Vienna. etc) are by the artist’s son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and are of vital importance.
This painting appears to show a sixteenth century Netherlandish village being plundered, with soldiers beating peasants, clambering into buildings and stealing livestock. The artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, evokes the freezing cold temperatures with icicles dripping from the rooftops, a slushy road in the distance and frozen pond.
Bruegel’s Massacre of the Innocents was a popular image, repeated numerous times mainly by the artist and by his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Shortly after its creation the painting came into the possession of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II, in Prague.
The biblical subject of the infanticide ordered by Herod is relocated by Bruegel to a snowy Flemish village. The event is brought up to date to resemble a contemporary penal expedition due to the clothing, as the troops on horseback with their red tunics were a kind of police unit. Inv.-Nr. GG 1024.
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Massacre of the Innocents. Matthew 2: 16. Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
