3D-Printed Zoetrope by Mat Collishaw, Inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’ “Massacre of the Innocents” (1608)

“This 3D printed job took about 6 months of work and involved creating over 350 character figures, environment elements and architecture. I was responsible for all 3D modeling and animations. This is the 6th zoetrope I had a pleasure to work on.

The Massacre of the Innocents paintings thrive on the repetition of characters spread across the canvas. They are designed to excite our emotions and to keep our eyes moving around the surface in an agitated manner without intimacy and with no focal point. The zoetrope capitalizes on this, literally repeating characters to create an overwhelming orgy of violence that is simultaneously appalling and compelling.” ~ Mat Collishaw

The gruesome and violent scene Collishaw’s zoetrope depicts take its inspiration from Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents works, two paintings based on the Biblical story of King Herod’s pre-emptive order to slaughter all of the male children in Bethlehem, as related in the Gospel of Matthew, Ch.2, vs.13-18.