# Massacre of the Innocents I [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [POUSSIN, Nicolas]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 97 x 132 cm ## Commentary Poussin painted two versions of The Massacre of the Innocents between 1628 and 1632. In the first version, the gruesome scene, in which the mothers are desperately trying to protect their children from the murderous soldiers, unfolds across the pictorial plane like a frieze, with the figures arranged one beside the other. Although Poussin attempts to establish a connection between the three groups, insofar as he presents them as isolated moments within an unfolding sequence of movement, the pairs of figures lack a certain cohesion. Having already suffered greatly in the 1700s, at the beginning of the 20th century the canvas was the target of a politically motivated attack. Its damaged areas could only be partially restored and some clumsy additions were made. It is consequently difficult to date the work, and its attribution was for a long time disputed. In 1994, however, a reference to the painting was discovered in the inventory of a Roman collection of the 17th century, where it is described as a work by Poussin. ## Related artworks - [A Bacchic Scene]() - [A Dance to the Music of Time]() - [A Roman Road]() - [A Sacrifice]() - [Acis and Galatea]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Annunciation]() - [Apollo and Daphne]() - [Apollo and Daphne]() - [Apollo and the Muses \(Parnassus\)]() - [Armida Carrying off Rinaldo]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()