GIOTTO di Bondone
(b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)

No. 21 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 5. Massacre of the Innocents

1304-06
Fresco, 200 x 185 cm
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

A great number of slaughtered children lie on the ground. A soldier stands over the corpses and, at the command of King Herod (who appears in the painting himself), snatches a baby boy from his mother. The women scream, weep and try to protect their children. The men on the other side turn away, crushed and ashamed.