The Massacre of the Innocents (Right side) with group of male figures attacking women and children; classical buildings in the background
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Block: 20 11/16 × 16 3/8 in. (52.6 × 41.6 cm) Sheet: 21 7/8 × 17 1/16 in. (55.5 × 43.4 cm) Image: 20 11/16 × 16 3/8 in. (52.6 × 41.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925
Accession Number
25.75.77
Tags
Art Historical Context
Domenico Campagnola's *The Massacre of the Innocents (Right side)*, in 1517, a harrowing moment from the New Testament: King Herod's soldiers slaughtering infant boys in a futile attempt to eliminate the infant Jesus. This woodcut, the right panel of a larger composition, depicts a chaotic group of muscular male figures—many nude—brutally attacking desperate women and children amid grand classical buildings in the background. The Venetian artist's dramatic rendering evokes the Renaissance fascination with biblical narratives and antiquity, blending intense emotion with architectural grandeur. ...
About the Artist
Domenico Campagnola · 1500–1564
Domenico Campagnola (c. 1500–1564), a Venetian Renaissance painter, engraver, and pioneering draftsman, was born around 1500, likely in Venice to German parents, and became a child prodigy under the tutelage of his adoptive father, Giulio Campagnola. Apprenticed to Giulio around 1507 in Venice, he mastered painting, drawing, engraving, and woodcutting from the esteemed Paduan engraver, whose stipp...