Sano di Pietro, The Massacre of the Innocents

Circa 1470
From a predella, tempera on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 58.189.1, Gift of Irma N. Strauss

This is the traditional way of picturing the massacre mentioned in Matthew 2:16-18. Herod wears a crown, sits on a throne on a dais, and holds a scepter. His pointing gesture signifies his direction to the soldiers to kill the infant boys. In the text the slaughter takes place "in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof," so most images place it out of doors, but this one and a few others stage it inside the king's hall.

The woman in red holds her hands to her face in an attitude of grief that references the text, "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children.…"

In this image the babies are swaddled; often other images have them naked.

Read more about images of the Slaughter of the Innocents

Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.