"The Massacre of the Innocents", an oil on canvas painting by Pacecco de Rosa during the 1600s, depicts a scene from the Bible in which we see the moment when soldiers were sent out by King Herod to kill every child in the region to end the rumors of a child prophesied to rule the kingdom. The baby whom he was looking for was none other than Jesus Christ. And upon careful observation, one can see that among all of the chaos occurring in this painting, there is one mother and child who do not seem to be frightened like the others, so one may conclude that this is Mary and her son, Jesus. .
However, this couple is actually Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, and her son, John the Baptist. Their presence in the painting is important, because they are the two main subjects, yet, ironically, they, at first, are the least noticeable. Their coloring is the least dynamic compared to the other figures, and they are located farther back in space than most of the figures as well. One may say they are the calm in the center of the storm, because we see that neither of them is being attacked, nor do they seem scared or stressed in anyway. This is due to the fact that de Rosa wanted to be true to the story, which stated that Elizabeth and John the Baptist were saved from this massacre.
The painting is approximately six feet tall by ten feet wide. With this in mind, we see that each figure is about life size, if not slightly larger. De Rosa painted with oils on canvas, using every medium to its best advantage. For instance, we see his brush strokes are varied from one area of the canvas to another. In some places, he uses great detail with each stroke seeming very precise and calculated, like the tiny tear drops falling from the women's faces, or the minute hairs on the men's arms; however, in other areas, his strokes are more loose and gesturer with large, heavy brush strokes. This technique was used in describing things like the folds in the fabric of a woman's dress or the clouds and sky in the background.