The Massacre of the Innocents

The scene is described in a synthetic solution, almost sculptural, with a very tragical and theatrical effect. The three main characters occupy “the stage” horizontally: the murderer is turning aggressively on the mother, who’s looking at him with a frightend and angry glance. His forearm muscles are stretched in grasping the leg of the crying baby. The setting, refleting the interest for antiquary, is intentionally bare for emphasizing the dramatic scene. The tridimensional scenography is rendered by a marble wall beneath the main features, and the perspective of a colonnade in the background, where another mother is crying. The whole painting, especially in the scene, the warrior, the screaming woman, the anatomy of the child, reminds the Raphael lesson read through the most famous French painter of that period, Nicholas Poussin, who also painted the same subject (now in Giustiniani collection, Rome).