The Massacre of the Innocents

The composition probably derives from a lost painting by Martin van Cleve (1527-1581) to which a signed drawing by van Cleve in the Print Room of the University of Gothingen is presumably related (G. Marlier, Pieter Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 337, fig. 200). This in turn was based on Pieter Brueghel the Elder's original at Hampton Court. Numerous versions of this composition by Pieter Brueghel II and his studio are recorded by Marlier (op. cit., pp. 336-339; K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, 2000, pp. 353-358, nos. 302-330); these include paintings in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Inv. no. 8726, and the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Inv. no. 832.