The Massacre of the Innocents

The Massacre of the InnocentsThe subject is from Matthew II, 16 18: having learnt from the wise men of the birth in Bethlehem of the King of the Jews, Herod ordered that the young children of the city be put to death. The picture was begun in 1647, or shortly after, but was left unfinished probably until the mid 1660s, when it was completed for Gdon du Metz, keeper of the Royal Treasury. There are several preliminary drawings in the Louvre.

Anthony Blunt (1967) described the Nurture of Jupiter as 'one of Poussin's most exquisite paintings for the delicacy of its formal harmony and the subtlety of its colouring

sa vie et ses oeuvres'

serving as dean of the guild in 1692

but were also said to provide thieves with all the help they needed in picking locks and in forging keys

from which Emmanuel Philibert died on 3 August

the painting has always been the subject of speculation and conflicting interpretations

dated by Vlieghe within the period c

The style and bravura handling are certainiy Fragonard's

something not usually tolerated in English seventeenth-century high society

with suggestions including servant (the most universally accepted)

whose leaves being pulled from the stalke in the full beauty of it

of the air circulating round every branch