MASSACRE AT THE AIC
Several weeks ago I visited some of the Art Institute of Chicago's popular European Painting galleries. My intention was to take photos of people looking at art (right), which I use to collage into architectural renderings for school. While on the prowl I came across a gory relief sculpture by the Baroque Venetian sculptor Francesco Bertosa entitled The Massacre of the Innocents from 1700. It depicts a scene from the Gospel of Matthew in which King Herod orders the massacre of all of Bethleham's male children to prevent the rise of a new King of the Jews. It looks like a Cannibal Corpse album cover, what with the severed baby heads and limbs rolling around. I usually associate such "Metal" scenes like this with the Old Testament, which is of course full of regicide, patricide, suicide, infanticide, and general spurts of sex and violence.