The Slaughter of the Innocent

The esonarthex of the Katholikon was decorated around 1600 with wall paintings. Four large compositions cover the walls and the vault: the Slaughter of the Innocents, episodes from the cycle of the Birth of Christ, the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Last Judgment.

The Slaughter of the Innocent
The scene is placed at the left end of the west wall. It is a large composition, full of intense, almost violent movement, which is strongly reminiscent of battle scenes by Ucello and other Italian painters of the 14th and 15th centuries. The soldiers, most of them of young age with brown or blond hair, are thrusting daggers and swords into the throats and chests of infants. Their mothers are trying to save them from the fore coming death. The ones that have lost the struggle are kneeling and caressing the dead infants in lamentation. The grief on their young faces is very delicately expressed, with a slight contraction that does not alter their appearance, but rather lends certain nobility. The curly blond hair of both men and women, falling over their shoulders, the well-trimmed beards, the soldiers’ armour and the soft drapery of the garments, are all features deriving from the international Gothic style. All the above, along with the obvious virtuosity of the painter, lead to the attribution of the paintings to one of the most important Cretan artists, possibly from the circle of painter Angelos, who is believed to be one of the exquisite artists invited to Patmos by the Monastery during the period from 1580 onwards.