
The Massacre of the Innocents (Giotto)
1305 · Scrovegni Chapel, Padua
Herod gestures from a balcony while soldiers pull babies out of their mothers' arms. Giotto carries the horror on the mothers' faces alone.
★ 5.4

Herod gestures from a balcony while soldiers pull babies out of their mothers' arms. Giotto carries the horror on the mothers' faces alone.

Rubens came back to the subject nearly thirty years later with the same fury and a much broader, more fluent hand.

Herod's soldiers and the mothers of Bethlehem lock into one knot of muscle. Overlooked for centuries, it sold in 2002 for a record price.