The Massacre of the Innocents by Poussin (Musée Condé, Chantilly) : Consideration from the Viewpoint of the Work Made for Vincenzo Giustiniani

Poussin's The Massacre of the Innocents (c. 1628–29, Musée Condé, Chantilly) was supposedly painted for Vincenzo Giustiniani, a distinguished art collector in Rome. Unlike traditional iconography, this picture highlights only a pair of figures --a soldier and a mother with her child-- in the foreground. A similar depiction can be found in a precedent work by Cornelis Schut that was already being exhibited at the Palazzo Giustiniani. For that reason, this paper demonstrates that Poussin while referring to the specific painting in possession of his patron, dared to introduce a new act by the soldier, who is shown trampling the infant. Given the wound on the child's right side, the cruel treatment by the soldier should be considered as having originated from Dell'umanita del figliuolo di Dio by Pietro Aretino (Venice, 1st ed 1535, revised in 1628), as the author emphasizes that the soldier trod on a venter of the infant and stabbed the child in the side with his sword. In addition, it is noteworthy that Poussin appears to have responded to a change in his client's taste. Although Giustiniani had been an ardent supporter of Caravaggio, he became, from the late 1620s, more interested in ancient art and published a book of engravings featuring antique sculptures in his palace. This study points out that Poussin's depiction of the soldier in The Massacre of the Innocents likely reflects the antique statue known as The Gladiator Killing the Lion in Giustiniani's collection, given the act of the gladiator holding his sword over his head. It can thus be assumed that Poussin represented the powerful male figure on a level with that appearing in the large-scale paintings favoured at the beginning of 17th century, and in the severe manner of the ancient art contained in the rich collection at Palazzo Giustiniani