ITALIAN SCHOOL (18TH CENTURY), MASSACRE OF THE... Lot 233

ITALIAN SCHOOL (18TH CENTURY), MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS Oil on canvas. Traces of signature. Recanvased. Dim.: 150x197 cm. The theme of the "Massacre of the Innocents" gave artists of many nationalities the opportunity to compose complicated works, with many bodies in violent acts. It was na alternative to the "Escape into Egypt", in the cycles of the Life of the Virgin. The theme lost popularity in Gothic art and resumed it in the great works of the Renaissance, when artists were inspired, for their "Massacres", by the Roman reliefs about the battles between Lapitas and the Centaurs, with regard to the heroically naked figures.