The Massacre of the Innocents (Without the Fir Tree)
about 1511–12
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi (Italian, 1470/82–1527/34)
Prints
The Massacre of the Innocents (Without the Fir Tree), about 1511–12. Marcantonio Raimondi (Italian, 1470/82–1527/34), after Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). Engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1964.23 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.
- Maker/Artist
- Raimondi, Marcantonio
- Classification
- Formatted Medium
- engraving
- Medium
- engraving
- Departments
- Prints
- Accession Number
- 1964.23
- Credit Line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review (1964), Old Master Prints and Drawings, Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions, When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story, The Lessons of the Academy, Real Prints: Reproduction or Invention, Drawings: Discoveries in the Collection, Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900, Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's, Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art, The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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