The Massacre of the Innocents

Veronese School

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing from the Veronese School. The drawing depicts the biblical Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem. The drawing is crowded with figures: distressed mothers trying to protect their babies, and men with daggers killing the infants. A group of dead children lies in a heap in the bottom right-hand corner. An archway with decorative detailing is visible on the left of the drawing. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "1. VERONESE SCHOOL Early fifteenth century THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Bequeathed to the University by the Rev. Robert Finch, 1830. Pen and ink on paper originally white. 28.2 x 43.4 cm. (11 1/8 x 17 1/8 in.). As an elaborate narrative composition, spread out over a large sheet of paper, the present drawing is of a type with which we are familiar from Jacopo Bellini's sketchbooks in the British Museum and the Louvre. But while there is this general affinity, the style of the drawing nevertheless points definitively to a Veronese origin; affinities to the manner of Pisanello occur throughout the composition, while certain passages (e.g. the topmost figure of an executioner on the extreme right) recall the style of an even earlier Veronese master like Altichiero da Zevio. T. B."