Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Innocents: Massacre.
Belgium, possibly Tournai, ca. 1440
MS M.357. Fol. 076r

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Innocents: Massacre -- Woman, wearing hood, hands clasped, kneels before Herod, wearing crown on hat, holding scimitar with right hand, wearing ermine-lined mantle, seated on throne. She looks back over right shoulder toward soldier piercing with knife, abdomen of nude infant draped over his left arm. At left, another woman, wearing hood, cradling with right arm swaddled, bleeding infant, looks up at soldier raising knife with right hand. At right, three men, wearing hats, stand next to the throne, one possibly talking to Herod.
Margins decorated with border of floreate ornament inhabited by hybrid soldier raising club or branch with left hand; hybrid soldier wearing turban-like headgear, holding small round shield (buckler) at shoulder, confronting dragon, foliage emerging from open mouth. Text and miniature framed on three sides by gold bars decorated with intertwining vines enclosing flowers.