Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Slaughter of the Innocents. 1565-67
This picture, at first view simply a naive painting of the familiar Biblical scene, was in more ways than one a result of fundamental Protestantism gaining hold in the Low Countries. This effectively discouraged Artists from producing pictures of idols, that would be considered Popery, so they had to use other scenes to convey their thoughts.
There's a good quote here which sums his dilemma quite nicely.
http://watchmepaint.blogspot.com/2007/12/adoration-of-magi-in-snow.html"Bruegel was addressing a problem which bedevils our own age: how can the artist tell an ancient, unchanging story in a new language? He solved the problem by quoting a traditional icon in the context of a new reality. In these three paintings, the new context was the Protestant priesthood of all believers, represented by the peasantry. Today we call this “appropriation art” and imagine it’s a new idea."
But back to the picture and what it is really about..
This picture is not about Herod killing children.
This is a record of genocide, of all the people of an impoverished Dutch village beng slaughtered by the forces of King Philip II of Spain for being heretics, all set against the bleak mid winter, and a very common occurence at that time in what is now known as Holland.
The original details, revealed by X-Rays shows men, women and children being imaginatively chopped to pieces and scattered around, but these bits were changed, overpainted, by a later owner to strange packages and animals as it was considered too brutal a depiction.
In the background, you can see a detachment of mounted soldiers, ready to intervene if any of the intended victims attempt to escape.
When you look at it with this knowledge, you can perhaps see something that resonates down the ages, and that still occurs, from the 2nd World War slaughter of complete villages on the Eastern front, to events still happening today in hell holes in sub Saharan Africa. Religion. It's great at times.
As an aside, Bruegal was the inventor of the winter landscape and also the use of violet shadowing and warm highlighting, called chromatic modeling.
Well worth checking out his 'The Triumph of Death'.
