The “Slaughter of the Innocents” is an episode from the Gospel of Saint Matthew connected with the life of Jesus. According to the narrative, Herod, King of Judea, when he heard from the Magi about the birth of a new king, ordered that all male children under two years of age living in and around Bethlehem be killed. Jesus managed to escape the massacre because an angel warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt. The story is a frequent subject in painting because it is commemorated during the Christmas season and is tied to the veneration as martyrs of the Holy Innocents, the babies killed in the slaughter. Spreading throughout the West from the middle of the fifth century, this veneration responded well to the fears of that period connected with the high rate of infant mortality and also to the brutality of King Herod, accused of killing even some of his own sons so as not to lose his throne. This subject is treated in the church of the Servants of Mary in the fourteenth-century fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti, with the assistance of two artists in his workshop, and in the panel painting by Matteo di Giovanni dated 1491. This altarpiece was made for the private chapel of the Spannocchi family located in the right aisle and dedicated to the Holy Innocents, as it contained a relic of the little martyrs. These two works, far apart in style, differ also in their illustration of the . . .