The Massacre of the Innocents
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 1/8 × 13 5/8 in. (28.2 × 34.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.570.209
Art Historical Context
Augustin Hirschvogel’s 1545 etching *The Massacre of the Innocents* captures the biblical story from the Gospel of Matthew in which King Herod orders the slaughter of male infants in Bethlehem. Created during the height of the German Renaissance, the work reflects the period’s intense interest in religious subjects and the growing demand for art through printmaking. Hirschvogel, a Nuremberg-born artist and cartographer, helped pioneer etching as a medium that allowed for fluid, expressive lines compared with the more laborious engraving technique. Measuring roughly 11 by 13 inches, this print...
About the Artist
Augustin Hirschvogel · 1503–1553
Augustin Hirschvogel (1503–1553) was born in Nuremberg into a prominent family of stained-glass painters who dominated the city's glass workshops during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The son of Veit Hirschvogel the Elder (1461–1525), Nuremberg's official glazier who executed designs after Albrecht Dürer and Hans von Kulmbach, Augustin trained as a glass painter in his father's workshop. ...