Artwork Page for The Massacre of the Innocents (Without the Fir Tree)

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The Massacre of the Innocents (Without the Fir Tree)

about 1511–12

Marcantonio Raimondi

(Italian, 1470/82–1527/34)

after Raphael

(Italian, 1483–1520)
Culture
Italy, 16th century
Medium
engraving
Measurements
Sheet: 28 x 42.6 cm (11 x 16 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1964.23
Catalogue raisonné
Delaborde 296.2 ; Passavant VI.12.9 ; Bartsch XIV.21.20
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Raphael drew this composition to be engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi while working in the Vatican apartments adjacent to Michelangelo, who was then painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The emotive scene portrays a moment from the biblical Book of Matthew when King Herod, hearing of the birth of a savior, ordered the execution of all male children under two years of age. Known for the clarity and balance of his forms and compositions, the younger Raphael may have found inspiration for this composition in Michelangelo’s narrative intensity and active, twisting nude forms.
A horizontally oriented engraving depicts muscular nude men violently wielding swords against women clutching infants on a tiled plaza. In the foreground, men grasp women by the hair while dead infants lie on the ground. Centrally, a woman flees toward the right. Behind the chaotic scene, a stone bridge leads toward a background of urban buildings and towers under a cloudy sky.

The Massacre of the Innocents (Without the Fir Tree)

about 1511–12

Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael

(Italian, 1470/82–1527/34), (Italian, 1483–1520)
Italy, 16th century

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