What happened before

  Joseph was instructed by an angel in a dream to take his family into Egypt.:
 And when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
                                                                                                                                Matthew 2 v 13.
    A number of artists have depicted this scene. This version is by Gaetano Gandolfi. 

Private collection

   The massacre of the innocents followed the Holy Family's departure,  a familiar and often harrowing image in Christian art. This page from the Winchester Psalter shows the flight with the massacre below. 

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