# The Massacre of the Innocents

- By: Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Haarlem, 1562–1638)
- Date: 1590
- Medium: canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: height 245 cm x width 358 cm
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-128--4de79860d4800b1e1e8f785960c41e86)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/70650e94c7d0f40331912284bd3908b1.jpg
- Who can see it: Adult profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.