Massacre of the Innocents

religious

Commissioned by the Haarlem Magistrate for the decoration of the Prinsenhof, the Massacre of the Innocents replaced a lost scene of the altarpiece of the Drapers' Guild in the St Bavo Church. The outer wings survived and were painted by Van Heemskerck. Cornelis van Haarlem was a member of a group of Dutch painters called the Haarlem Mannerists.

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About the Artist

Cornelis Van Haarlem

1562 – 1638

Dutch painter, also known as Cornelis Cornelisz, who ranks with Hendrik Goltzius and Karel van Mander as one of the leading representatives of Mannerism in the Netherlands. The three artists founded the Haarlem Academy, which was a school for drawing from the nude. He is best known for his large biblical and historical pictures packed with athletic, life-size Italianate nudes in wrenched and sharply foreshortened positions. But he also did a few forceful portraits of individuals and groups which show that he was an important forerunner of Frans Hals. Both facets of his work can best be seen in the Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem, where he spent most of his life, after traveling in France and the Netherlands, but not, apparently, in Italy.

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