Massacre of the Innocents (Matteo di Giovanni)

Matteo di Giovanni, the leading painter of Siena in the late fifteenth century, painted this Massacre of the Innocents around 1488. He was particularly drawn to this violent biblical subject, producing several versions that are among the most dramatic paintings of the Sienese Quattrocento. The subject may have resonated with contemporary events such as the Ottoman massacre at Otranto in 1480. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Tempera on panel with dynamic, multi-figure composition showing the violence of Herod's soldiers against the infants. Matteo's distinctive figure style combines Sienese elegance with raw dramatic energy.