The Massacre of the Innocents

The Gospel of Matthew portrays Herod, king of Judea, as a cruel tyrant. When Herod was told that a new king of the Jews (Jesus Christ) had been born, he feared a rival and thus had all the male infants in Bethlehem killed. The subject known as the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ has been treated by artists since late antiquity. However, contemporary scholarship regards the episode as unhistorical. The drastic scene created by Rubens may also have been expressive of the artist’s life in wartime. He often dealt with current topics by placing them in an ancient setting.