Oil on canvasA beautiful Italian or French painting depicting the Massacre of the Innocents from the Gospel of Matthew. Before a landscape bathed in light, but set with dark and heavy architecture, a group of eight adults and eight children has been skilfully arranged (including the putti distributing the palm of victory). The unusual vertical format, rarely used for this theme, and above all the symmetrical structure of figural counterparts indicate that Reni was particularly interested in a specific problem of composition: that of achieving a balance between centripetal and centrifugal movement while combining them in a static pictorial structure. The composition is balanced despite the violence of the scene and Reni managed to portray an almost theatrical dimension to the work. The scene is characterised by the contrast of colours and the dramatic gestures. The artist carefully studied Reni and created his work in the same bold colours as the original (painted in 1611) from ...