The Massacre of The Innocents

mid- to late 15th century

Bernardino Jacopi Butinone Italian, ca. 1450-1510

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

This painting depicts the horrifying slaughter undertaken on the order of Herod, king of Judea, and described in the Bible’s Gospel of Matthew. Alerted to the birth of Jesus, Herod ordered the death of all male babies under the age of two. In Bernardino Jacopi Butinone’s depiction, the massacre is already underway. Bodies lie maimed on the ground; a soldier with sword upraised pursues a woman fleeing with her child. Butinone employs a strategy new to his time called linear perspective to create an illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines converge on a single vanishing point located on the composition’s horizon line. In this case, that vanishing point is located roughly behind the head of the seated King Herod who sits observing the terror he has unleashed.

Title The Massacre of The Innocents

Artwork Date mid- to late 15th century

Artist Bernardino Jacopi Butinone

Life Dates ca. 1450-1510

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions Image: 9 7/8 × 8 5/16 inches (25.1 × 21.1 cm) Framed: 15 × 13 9/16 × 1 1/2 inches (38.1 × 34.4 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 64.81

Markings

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Provenance

Claude Lafontaine (Paris, France);
until 1962, Madame Bes de Berc (Paris, Franc);
April 11, 1962, sold by (Palais Galliera, Paris, France) lot 19 [as by Mantegna];
until 1964, (Heim Gallery, Paris, France);
1964-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

The Institute Collects: A Selective Survey of Additons to the Collection, 1959-1964. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Art. Detroit, 1964, p. 14.

"Appendix VI: Accessions January 1 to December 31, 1964." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 44, no. 2 (1965): p. 37; p. 39 (ill.)

Paintings in the DIA: A Checklist of the Paintings Acquired Before June 1965. Detroit, 1965, p. 19.

Richardson, E.P., ed. Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 3rd ed. Detroit, 1966, p. 79 (ill.).

Fredericksen, B. and F. Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972, p. 38.

Brigstocke, Hugh. Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh. 1978, pp. 25-26.

Dunbar, B.L. and E. Olszewski., eds. Drawings in Midwestern Collections: A Corpus. Columbia, MO, 1996, p. 17 (fig. 3-A).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Bernardino Jacopi Butinone, The Massacre of The Innocents, mid- to late 15th century, tempera on poplar panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund, 64.81.