The Massacre of the Innocents Portraits According to Robinson

According to Robinson

signed and dated 1633

Falling somewhere between genre and portraiture

a poet and scientist of some distinction

Probably originally one of a pair representing Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate

The Massacre of the Innocents Portraits According to RobinsonThe subject is from Matthew II, 16 18: having learnt from the wise men of the birth in Bethlehem of the King of the Jews, Herod ordered that the young children of the city be put to death. The picture was begun in 1647, or shortly after, but was left unfinished probably until the mid 1660s, when it was completed for Gdon du Metz, keeper of the Royal Treasury. There are several preliminary drawings in the Louvre.