The Massacre of the Innocents

This painting is one of the copies made by Pieter Brueghel the Younger from one of his father's works. Set in 16th century Brabant, it can be interpreted in two different ways, like "The Census at Bethlehem", the proceeding episode in the story. According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Herod, having realised that the three wise men would not reveal where the "King of the Jews" had been born, "ordered the murder of all children under two years old in and around Bethlehem...". On the right, in the middle ground, a mounted herald has just announced the royal edict. We see children being snatched from their mothers, people running to hide, doors being forced open, under the implacable watch of a group of armed cavalry whose lances form an impenetrable fence around the trap.