Here’s a link to a larger version of José y Maria. It’s worth examining, and I spotted a couple more I-Spy tags.
That sign behind Jose’s elbow reads “Elect(?) Herod Antipas”; the newspaper at his feet has an ad for Shepherd-brand watches and for Glad and Tide household products, there’s a bottle of Golden Ale by the phone pedestal, Maria’s hoodie is from Nazareth High School and the crown over the motel sign makes it “Royal David’s City”, as in the carol. There are probably others I’ve missed, but nothing’s there that the artist didn’t put in deliberately.
Interpretations with a contemporary setting make these images far more immediate than Sunday-school “Bible Story” illustrations, and one of the best (for a given value of “best”) isn’t modern-contemporary at all, though it was contemporary to the artists.
It’s “Massacre of the Innocents” by the Pieters Bruegel; father and son had the same name and both painted versions of the incident. Look at it while listening to “The Coventry Carol”.
Despite the 450 years separating the painting from modern viewers, it still has a chillingly familiar look which has nothing to do with the weather and which any military historian will recognise: Drogheda 1649, Amritsar 1919, Russia 1941, Lidice 1942, Oradour-sur-Glane 1944, My Lai 1968…
A long, depressing list of incidents and excuses. “Terrorists / untermensch / nits grow into lice / kill all, God will know his own / just following orders…”
It was such uncomfortable viewing for Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (the men doing the killing were following orders from the Spanish side of his Hapsburg family) that he had his copy censored, The dead and soon-to-die children were overpainted with livestock and bundles of produce, turning the massacre into a more acceptable scene of simple looting.
This article looks at the redaction and how it was discovered during restoration of the “Massacred Innocents Pillaged Village” version in the British Royal Collection.
But looking for all the clues in “José y Maria” is far more pleasant…
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