The Slaughter of the Innocents

Detail of the St. Michael altarpiece
Church of St. Nicholas, Burgos, Spain

In most paintings of this subject the murder of the children occupies most of the space and Herod presides from the side, but here his image is dominant and his sword is considerably larger than the spears his men are using. The woman with her hand raised most likely represents the "lamentation and great mourning, Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted" (Matthew 2:18).

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