A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools / Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin

by Unknown

1239, 1240. THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.

Girolamo Mocetto (Venetian: worked 1484-1514).

Mocetto was a native of Verona, but a pupil of Giovanni Bellini at Venice. He was "one of the earliest," says Lanzi (ii. 167), "and least polished among Bellini's disciples." And it is interesting to contrast the accomplished and beautiful work of the master (1233) with the almost ludicrous imperfections of these two pictures by the pupil. Notice especially the absurd attitude of the attendant to the left, in 1239; and in 1240, the expression of grief in the mother. Mocetto's claim to distinction rests rather on his rare engravings, executed from the designs of Giovanni Bellini and Mantegna. He "was also the painter of the great window in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (Venice), which, although badly restored, still remains a magnificent work" (Layard, i. 332).

These works probably formed the wings of a triptych. In the former scene Herod directs the massacre which has already begun; in the second, the massacre is at its height.