The Massacre of the Innocents by Angelo Visconti

This work, like many others displayed here, remained unfinished due to the artist’s untimely death; he drowned in the Tiber in 1861. The lengthy process of creating the piece is documented in numerous sketches and preparatory drawings. The final composition features three figures, almost like a sculptural group: the executioner, the mother, and the child. The scene is intensely dramatic, with the warrior in a menacing stance, the mother screaming, and the child defenseless. This piece contrasts with Gaetano Marinelli’s work, displayed in the previous room, which depicts the same subject but at a different moment: here, the executioner has yet to discover the mother’s hiding place, leaving open the possibility of a happy ending.