A village landscape in winter with the Massacre of the Innocents

The son of Jacob Grimmer, Abel Grimmer is primarily known for his small paintings of country scenes, which often form part of a series of the Four Seasons or the Twelve Months of the year. This snowy landscape was likely conceived as part of such a series, perhaps as a representation of the months of December or January, or simply Winter. The painting is executed in Grimmer’s celebrated style, marked by a preference for clearly articulated scenes set in elegant, orderly landscapes. The high viewpoint and dramatic recession set along the diagonal are also characteristic of the artist. In contrast to the biblical episode depicted in the foreground, Grimmer populates the background here with more benign and anecdotal passages from everyday peasant life: villagers walk through the streets while soldiers pause to allow their horses to drink from the river.