The subject is set in the courtyard of Herod’s Palace in Jerusalem, where the King, fearful of his own position when he heard that a King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem ordered the slaughter of the newly born children there.  This work is the only known picture by the artist painted on a large scale.  Its general style is derived from late sixteenth century mannerism, which the artist could easily have known from engravings which were circulated widely at the time. The much smaller work, Moses and the Brazen Serpent at Stockholm, is painted in almost exactly the same style and it comes from the same year 1621.

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