The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul RubensThe Massacre of the Innocents depicts the soldiers of Herod, intent on murdering the Christ child, and the Spanish troops of the Hapsburgs, ravaging the Low Countries or equally nefarious ends.
The massacre was ordered by King Herod. He had been told by the Three Wise Men that a King of the Jews had been born, and decided to prevent him from becoming a rival.
Rubens died soon after painting his Massacre of the Innocents, his school indeed lived on, but it may nevertheless b truthfully said that he carried the great art of his country into the grave with him.
The painting languished in an Austrian monastery as the work of Jan van den Hoecke, a Rubens follower.
In 2002 reattributed to Rubens himself, the painting was sold at auction for $76 million.
The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens
