Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
Netherlands, Utrecht, ca. 1490
MS S.1 fol. 39v

See more information »

Innocents: Massacre -- Herod the Great, wearing hat, holding scepter in right hand, sits on throne. Before him is woman, wearing hat, rending garments; helmeted soldier, holding sword in right hand and grasping with left hand infant held by woman wearing headdress; helmeted soldier stabbing nude infant held in left hand with sword held in right hand; and woman, veiled, covering her face with her hand, kneeling on floor beside bleeding infant. Bleeding and dismembered infants scattered on floor. Scene in building with leaded glass windows. Visible through arched opening in wall are Virgin Mary, veiled, holding Christ Child, seated astride ass led by Joseph the Carpenter, in distant landscape (Christ: Flight into Egypt).
Margins with vinescroll and floreate ornament.