The Massacre of the Innocents

The three Wise Men from the Bible story predicted the coming of a ‘king of Jews’. The Jewish King Herod appointed by the Romans felt threatened and had all young male children in Bethlehem killed. The focus here is on this dramatic event.
The theme of the Massacre of the innocents was depicted by Rubens several times. This print was based on a painting Rubens created around 1635 and which is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Vienna (Austria). In contrast with the earlier version that makes the ruthless massacre the centre of a compact scene, this version offers hope for divine salvation by the depiction of the angels scattering rose petals over the little martyrs. The action is spread over various clusters, brought together around the central figure of the mother who stretches her hands up in the air and shows a cloth impregnated with her child’s blood.
In his later work Rubens denounced the horrors of war and especially the resulting suffering of women and children. His correspondence contained many references to the consequences of war: he therefore longed for ‘a golden age’ instead of ‘an iron period’.
Paulus Pontius was an apprentice of Lucas Vorsterman, followed in his footsteps and worked as an engraver for Rubens from 1626 to 1631. However, the print was made after Rubens’s death and bears the date of 1643.