Massacre Of The Innocents
Bruegel 1566
Midwinter
Josephus has failed to notice the massacre.
(The persons are few & the result negligible.)
But here - somewhere lost in the scene - Bruegel
is present.
Snow covers the tiles covers the ground deadens
the cries absorbs the blood.
The prophet Jeremy observes:
‘Voices everywhere are heard lamentation & mourning:
Rachel bitterly weeping for her children . . . ’
High in his tree a crow peers from his nest.
The blacksuited commander counts the bodies
( 5 or 6 dead the rest struggling about to be dead).
Horses noticing nothing paw the ground.
Dogs excitedly sniffing blood bark.
Silently the troop
patiently grouped in a block
wait for the end of the hunt the killing
***
Herod no longer mocked
(another crow in another tree)
also hopes & waits.
Note
Small killings were frequent & likely to pass unnoticed; but the artist (looking apparently from a point above them) observes the details vividly.
He sees (& hears with Jeremiah) the mothers begging for the lives of their children & he clearly illustrates the butchery.
He blankets the village in snow, introduces some dogs & aristocratic huntsmen & hunt servants.
He observes a nest in a tree to the right. Herod & the crow are absent, but one can imagine them counting & waiting.