Massacre of the Innocents in the context of "Holy Innocents' Cemetery"

The life of Christ as a narrative cycle in Christian art comprises a number of different subjects showing events from the life of Jesus on Earth. They are distinguished from the many other subjects in art showing the eternal life of Christ, such as Christ in Majesty, and also many types of portrait or devotional subjects without a narrative element.

They are often grouped in series or cycles of works in a variety of media, from book illustrations to large cycles of wall paintings, and most of the subjects forming the narrative cycles have also been the subjects of individual works, though with greatly varying frequency. By around 1000, the choice of scenes for the remainder of the Middle Ages became largely settled in the Western and Eastern churches, and was mainly based on the major feasts celebrated in the church calendars.

In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the King of the Jews, both at the beginning of his life and at the end. In the Koine Hellenic of the New Testament, e.g., in John 19:3, this is written as Basileus ton Ioudaion (βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων).

Both uses of the title lead to dramatic results in the New Testament accounts. In the account of the nativity of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, the Biblical Magi who come from the east call Jesus the "King of the Jews", implying that he was the Messiah. This caused Herod the Great to order the Massacre of the Innocents. Towards the end of the accounts of all four canonical Gospels, in the narrative of the Passion of Jesus, the title "King of the Jews" leads to charges against Jesus that result in his crucifixion.

The Massacre of the Innocents (French: Le Massacre des Innocents) is a 1625-1632 painting by Nicolas Poussin, showing the Massacre of the Innocents. It was probably commissioned by the Roman collector Vincenzo Giustiniani, probably in memory of the tragic fate of the Giustiniani children taken hostage by the Ottoman Empire in 1564. It remained in the Palazzo Giustiniani until 1804, when it was bought by Lucien Bonaparte. It then passed through several other hands before being bought in London by Henri d'Orleans, Duke of Aumale. It is now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.

Macduff's son is a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth (1606). His name and age are not established in the text; however, he is estimated to be 7–10 years of age. He is Shakespeare's typical child character—cute and clever. While Lady Macduff and her children are mentioned in Holinshed's Chronicles as the innocent victims of Macbeth's cruelty, Shakespeare is completely responsible for developing Macduff's son as a character. The boy appears in only one scene (4.2).

Macduff's son is viewed as a symbol of the youthful innocence Macbeth hates and fears, and the scene has been compared by one critic to the biblical Massacre of the Innocents. He is described as an "egg" by his murderer, further emphasising on his youth before his imminent death.