PISANO, Giovanni
(b. ca. 1250, Pisa, d. 1314, Pisa)

Pulpit reliefs: 3. Massacre of the Innocents

1301
Marble
Sant'Andrea, Pistoia

The third of the five panels shows the Massacre of the Innocents.

The expressive power of Giovanni's art reaches a feverish pathos in the Massacre of the Innocents. We witness infants yanked between soldiers and protective mothers, while other mothers, with swollen breasts, mourn their slain babes or plead for clemency from Herod. The anguish of suffering at the hands of brutal butchers and a cruel tyrant transcends the specific incident to become a universal polemic against injustice.




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