04 works, Today, December 29th, is The Holy Innocents' day, or The Massacre in Gaza, their story, illustrated #361

Angelo Visconti, (1829–1861)

The Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1860 - 1861

Oil on canvas

Height: 100.50 mm (3.95 in); Width: 74.50 mm (2.93 in)

Cassioli Museum, Asciano, Italy

Angelo Viscónti (1829–1861) was an Italian painter, mainly depicting turbulent scenes including historic and sacred subjects.

He was born in Siena and trained under Luigi Mussini. In 1854-1855, he won a traveling stipend along with Amos Cassioli. He moved to live with Cassioli in Rome in 1858.[1] He suffered an epileptic convulsion while in the Tiber River in Rome, and drowned. More on Angelo Viscónti

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother, and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts, and warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. 

Jacopo Tintoretto, (1519–1594)

The Massacre of the Innocents, between 1582 and 1587

Height: 422 cm (13.8 ft); Width: 546 cm (17.9 ft)

Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice, Italy

Tintoretto; born Jacopo Comin, (October, 1518 – May 31, 1594) was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. His work is characterized by its muscular figures, dramatic gestures, and bold use of perspective in the Mannerist style, while maintaining color and light typical of the Venetian School.

 

In his youth, Tintoretto was also known as Jacopo Robusti as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a way that others called robust, against the imperial troops during the War of the League of Cambrai (1509–1516). His real name "Comin" has only recently been discovered by Miguel Falomir, the curator of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and was made public on the occasion of the retrospective of Tintoretto at the Prado in 2007. More on Tintoretto

Peter Paul Rubens, (1577–1640)

Massacre of the Innocents, between 1611 and 1612

Oil on oak wood

Height: 142 cm (55.9 in); Width: 182 cm (71.6 in)

Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Canada 

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England.  More Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

William Holman Hunt,  (1827–1910)

The Triumph of the Innocents, circa 1883

Oil on canvas

Height: 1,562 cm (17 yd); Width: 254 cm (100 in)

Tate Britain 

Hunt began painting this subject while on a visit to the Holy Land in the 1870s. He originally intended to show just the Holy Family, but he later decided to add the martyred innocents. The Holy Family are surrounded by the spirits of the children slain by Herod. Hunt wanted the bubbles, or ‘airy globes’ which accompany the procession, to convey a sense of the waves of ‘the streams of eternal life’. More on this work

William Holman Hunt OM (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid color, and elaborate symbolism. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, according to whom the world itself should be read as a system of visual signs. For Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career. He was always keen to maximize the popular appeal and public visibility of his works. More on William Holman Hunt

An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt

In medieval England children were reminded of the mournfulness of the day by being whipped in bed in the morning; this custom survived into the 17th century. More on Feast of the Holy Innocents

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