The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"

The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"

Israhel van Meckenem

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Israhel a practicing goldsmith, was also one of the most prolific and innovative fifteen-century masters of the related art of engraving. The Massacre of the innocents belongs to Van Meckenem's series of twelve prints depicting The Life of the Virgin. A gory scene takes place in the foreground in which the male children are run through with swords all around King Herod who is seated on a throne with a smile on his face. Meanwhile, the window in the upper right shows Joseph leading away the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. The series relates to paintings by the elder Hans Holbein, but it is likely that Van Meckenem contributed some of the lively detail to the scene.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"The Massacre of the Innocents with the Flight into Egypt, from "The Life of the Virgin"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.