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The Massacre of the Innocents
Also titled De kindermoord in Bethlehem
Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Haarlem, 1562–1638)
1590
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 245 cm x width 358 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
About this work
When Herod, the King of Judea, learned that a child destined to become ‘King of the Jews’ would be born in Bethlehem, he ordered the slaughter of all boys under the age of two. The painter portrayed the massacre as a gruesome nightmare. Horror follows upon horror: at lower left a soldier slits a child’s throat, while above them a woman gouges out a soldier’s eyes.
