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The Massacre of the Innocents
c. 1565–67 · Royal Collection Trust
Sizes
image 10×6.9 in on a 10×8 in sheet
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All editionsAbout this painting
Soldiers in armour stand in a block in the middle of the square, lances up, and the snowbound village goes on around them. A woman sits grieving in the snow; in front of her, the Royal Collection explains, there once lay a dead child, and now there are hams and cheeses. Very early, before 1621 and probably while the work belonged to Emperor Rudolf II, the slaughtered babies were painted over with bundles, food and animals, so that the massacre reads as plunder: a pile of babies became livestock, a baby torn from its mother became a bundle, the herald's Habsburg eagle became a simple decoration. The soldiers wear the dress of the local officials who kept public order, and the snow, the Royal Collection says, is the severe winter of 1564-5. The hand that painted out the children left Pieter Bruegel the Elder's grief in place. The mothers still weep over hams.
Sources: Royal Collection Trust, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Massacre of the Innocents, RCIN 405787, read 2026-09-24 · Royal Collection Trust, 'Surprising revelations: Massacre of the Innocents', read 2026-09-24 · Royal Collection Trust, 'Massacre of the Innocents' (Google Arts & Culture story), read 2026-09-24
Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry: and sending killed all the menchildren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Matthew 2:16 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)