MMaxi

The story of the Massacre of the Innocents is found in the Bible.
After the birth of Jesus, King Herod heard that a new king of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem.
Having no way to recognise the child, he ordered his soldiers to kill all the boys in Bethlehem younger than two.
Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph had already fled with the baby Jesus to Egypt. They remained there until after the death of Herod.
In 1590 Cornelis van Haarlem painted a blood-curdling picture of the Massacre of the Innocents.
The subject had never before been tackled on so large and ambitious a scale.

Artist Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

Year 1590

Dinos Chapman was born in London in 1962 and Jake Chapman was born in Cheltenham in 1966. They both graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1990 and began working together shortly afterwards. The Chapmans weave a vast range of associations into their work, using material from all areas of the cultural landscape including philosophical theory, art history and consumer culture. They engage with inflammatory subjects and use subversive strategies to produce works that defiantly refute straightforward interpretation.


Top of my favorite Artists of the last 2 decades.

MMaxi

Artist: London Symphony Orchestra - Teresa Berganza - Jose Carreras


Album: Manuel de Falla - La Vida Breve

ACTO I


Escena Primera

(La escena representa el corral
de una casa de gitanos
en el Albaicín de Granada.
Al fondo una puerta por la que se vé el negro interior
de una Fragua,
iluminado por los rojos resplandores
del fuego)


OBREROS EN LA FRAGUA
¡Ande la tarea,
que hay que trabajar!

A crowd has gathered outside a bookshop and lottery agency in Amsterdam's Kalverstraat. It is 25 October, 1779, and the sale of lottery tickets for the 66th General Lottery has begun. Men, bent on obtaining a ticket, push and shove around the entrance. The eighteenth-century architectural painter, Isaak Ouwater, has depicted the event in great detail. However, Ouwater has filled in much of the picture with windows and the red bricks of the houses - a highly unusual composition. Ouwater was commissioned to paint this work by Jan de Groot, the owner of the bookshop and lottery agency.

Title The Bookshop and Lottery Agency of Jan de Groot on Kalverstraat in Amsterdam
Year 1779
Artist Isaak Ouwater
Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 38,5 x 33,5 cm

Title The Bodies of the De Witt Brothers, Hanged at Groene Zoodje on Vijverberg in The Hague

Artist Jan de Baen

The 'Groene zoodje' on Vijverberg in The Hague, was, for a few days in August 1672, silent witness to this gruesome scene. Two naked bodies are hanging with their feet tied to the gallows. The belly of the body on the left has been ripped open. It is night time and the bodies are illuminated by a burning torch. These are the bodies of the De Witt brothers, Cornelius and Johan. Both played prominent roles in the Stadholderless Period (1651-1672). As the pensionary, Johan had been the most powerful statesman in the Republic for a long time. In the disaster year of 1672, their time was up, once and for all: Johan and Cornelius de Witt were lynched by a mob in The Hague.

Johan De witt


His pro-French policy however would prove to be his undoing. In the Dutch rampjaar (disaster year) of 1672, when France and England during the Franco-Dutch War (Third Anglo-Dutch War) attacked the Republic, the Orangists took power by force and expelled him. Recovering from an earlier attempt on his life in June, he was assassinated by a carefully organized lynch "mob" after visiting his brother Cornelis de Witt in prison. He was decoyed into this trap by a forged letter.

After the arrival of Johan de Witt the city guard was sent away to stop plundering farmers, the farmers were not found. Without any protection against the assembled mob the brothers were doomed. They were taken out of the prison and on their way to the scaffold killed. Immediately after their death the bodies were mutilated and fingers toes and other parts were cut off. The heart of Cornelis de Witt was exhibited for many years next to his brother's by Dirck Verhoeff[citation needed].
Nowadays most historians assume that his adversary and successor as leader of the government stadtholder William III of Orange was involved. At the very least he protected and rewarded the killers.


Year c. 1672-1702


 

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